


Tangled Up in You

by marcel



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-15
Updated: 2013-01-15
Packaged: 2017-11-25 14:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/639825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcel/pseuds/marcel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It turns out Zayn’s flatmate is essentially a disney prince. Zayn wonders how this became his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tangled Up in You

**Author's Note:**

> ok remember that time i started this fic in september and told myself i could finish it in a month? yeah haha good one self  
> (also somehow there’s sex in this??? like i’m just as confused as everybody else cause i’m like 12???)  
> massive thank you to somerdaye for watching this happen and making sure i never died because of it, and also for making sure i knew how to english along the way, and also to gracie for agreeing to beta this when i threw it at her xoxoxoxox  
> lorraine, my lovely ever-patient lady, this one is for you.

Zayn wakes up to the sound of at least three different birds chirping outside his window, and realises he’s really missed it.  
  
His trip back to Bradford was nice, of course - four days of mum’s cooking, of revelling in the coziness that came with having 6 people in one room - but he’s definitely missed the birds.  
  
And his bed, which he’d promptly collapsed onto after returning to the flat the night before, not even bothering to unpack or undress beyond kicking his jeans off. He nearly trips over them as shuffles across the bedroom, still only half-awake, and snatches a pair of joggers off the back of his desk chair. With a wide yawn, he pulls them on and steps out into the hallway.  
  
He hears Liam then, for the first time since their rushed goodbye in the doorway when Zayn was  _this close_  to missing his train, and follows the sound down the hall to the kitchen.  
  
His flatmate is standing in front of the stove, holding a pan with something that smells like eggs and bacon (but could be something else entirely, his cooking is rather hit-or-miss). He’s singing, as per usual, and the windowsill beside him is crowded with birds and squirrels.  
  
In 5 months of living with Liam, Zayn still hasn’t quite gotten used to the various bits of local wildlife that show up whenever Liam so much as hums a note - but whatever, right? The other tenants shove passive-aggressive pest-control flyers through their mailslot, but it’s not like it’s _their_  fault there’s so many birds and mice and whatever else around the building.  
  
Liam sings in the kitchen, in the shower, when he can’t sleep, when one of them’s had a bad day, and at most other points in time. Sometimes he manages to get Zayn to join in (after about the 15th  _‘come on, Zayn, please?’_ ), but Zayn would always rather just listen. Today, though, he’s more focused on putting one foot in front of the other.  
  
He pads into the room, mumbling tiredly and rubbing his eyes, and Liam turns around, already grinning.  
  
“Good morning!” he chimes, turning off the stove and shifting the pan’s contents onto a plate. He walks over and presses it into Zayn’s hands. “I’m not really sure how this is going to taste, I was trying for an omelette but it turned into scrambled eggs instead. Anyway, I figured you wouldn’t want to do much this morning, what with how late you got in last night. How was the trip, by the way?”  
  
Zayn blinks at him, and he laughs, tugging him over to the table.  
  
“Sorry, forgot you’re utter crap in the mornings. Gimme a minute, yeah?” By the time Zayn manages to sit down without nodding off into his breakfast, Liam is back at his side with a steaming mug of coffee. He takes the seat next to him and sits quietly until, 3 sips later, Zayn sighs contentedly.  
  
“The trip was good,” he says, “and you are a god among men.”  
  
Liam laughs again and stands up, moving away to gently shoo the assorted critters off the windowsill. “Well, tell me more? Not about how great I am, I hear that all the time.”  
  
Zayn rolls his eyes, but can’t help smiling (okay, maybe he has a hard time not gushing when Liam makes the Best Coffee Ever, but who’s fault was that?).  
  
“Mum and dad and the girls are all fine. It was mostly just nice to be back at the house for a bit. Away from the London noise, y’know?”  
  
Liam nods, leaning back against the counter. “I was going to wait up for you last night, but...” he smiles sheepishly. “One in the morning was kind of pushing it. Sorry.”  
  
Raising his eyebrows, Zayn turns around in his seat to looks at Liam. “You’re fine until at least 3 when that one show is having reruns.”  
  
“ _Friends_  is different, and that was one time.”  
  
“If you say so,” Zayn teases, sticking his tongue out. “So what’d you do while I was gone? Throw any parties?”  
  
Liam hums. “Oh, you know. Caught up on sleep. Did the dishes, watched crap TV, cleaned the flat. Twice- No, see, you’re laughing-” he glares at the other boy, who’s trying - and failing - to hide his amusement. “-but the sad part is that I’m 100% serious.”  
  
“Aw, Liam!” Zayn gets up and throws his arm over Liam’s shoulders. His cheeks are starting to hurt from grinning so wide. “So, basically, you spent 4 days just... waiting for me to get back?”  
  
“Well, yeah,” Liam says in a small voice, leaning slightly into Zayn’s side. “I missed you.”  
  
Something changes in those 3 words and Zayn pauses, fingers brushing the collar of Liam’s shirt.  
  
 _I missed you too._  
  
The words are on the tip of his tongue and he realises he didn’t even think about it, how true it is- he missed Liam more than anything. But--  
  
“You have a job interview today,” Liam says abruptly, sliding out from under Zayn’s arm, and his smile is back.. “That one that’s been on the calendar for 3 weeks.”  
  
And just like that, the moment is gone.  
  
\--  
  
Zayn remembers, as he searches for the only tie he owns, the day his old flatmate moved out and left him scrambling for a way to cover the rent that was due at the end of the week. It wasn’t like they were particularly close, or anything - thinking back, Zayn isn’t sure he ever learned how to correctly pronounce his name - but either way, it was still a surprise to wake up one morning to a half-empty flat and a scribbled note expressing not-too-sincere apologies.  
  
Putting out an ad wasn’t the first thing he thought of, nor the second (those were slightly more on the illegal side of things), but he had thought of it eventually, and the next morning there was a somewhat-desperate-sounding listing in the paper. Zayn had spent the day refreshing his email inbox and trying to convince himself that breaking out the bottle of rum he kept hidden under the sink was not a good idea.  
  
Thinking back, he isn’t sure exactly of the moment he first saw Liam, but he knows there was a knock on the door at 5:16 PM, and that he fumbled with the lock three times before opening it in a decidedly calm sort of way.  
  
Liam had seemed smaller then, more closed in, not at all the boy who sings top-40 hits while he washes the dishes. He’d hesitantly come inside, following Zayn around on a tour of sorts ( _‘living room’s here, we’ve got internet and cable and a pretty nice couch, that’s the kitchen, the guy who just moved out left in a hurry so i got to keep all his plates and spatulas and that-’_ ) without saying a word.  
  
“So, Liam, right?” Zayn had started, once they reached the front door again. “What do you think?”  
  
“Um,” Liam slipped his shoes back on. “Yeah.”  
  
“… ‘yeah’, what?”  
  
“I like it.” He looked up at Zayn, smiling at him for the first time, and whoa.  
  
Zayn was pretty sure one’s heartbeat shouldn’t speed up that quickly. He dragged his eyes up from Liam’s mouth and tried to hear what he was saying over the rush in his ears.  
  
“...So?”  
  
He hoped the flush he felt across his face wasn’t noticeable. “Sorry, what?”  
  
“When do you want me to come around again?” Liam shuffled his feet. “To move in.”  
  
“Oh.” he blinked. “Tomorrow, if you like? Any time, really. Whatever works. For you, I mean.” _Christ, Zayn, just close your mouth._  “I’ll be here, so... whenever.”  
  
Liam nodded, stepping outside. “Tomorrow, then.”  
  
He waved as he walked away, with a small smile and a  _see you, Zayn_ , and Zayn thought he might melt. He had a brief thought of himself serenading the other boy - _what is this feeling, so sudden and new?_  - but pushed the image away, figuring that he probably shouldn’t even know all the words to that song.  
  
Zayn didn’t respond to any of the other potential flat-sharers.  
  
Liam had showed up the next morning with a single box and a grin.  
  
They fit together, after that.  
  
\--  
  
Liam’s voice is soothing but sharp and it hits Zayn like a wave, pulling him down until it’s all he can do not to breathe it in. In the evenings they’ll sit, sometimes, by the living room window, almost touching but not quite, and Zayn pretends to sleep while Liam sings to the streets below.  
  
He’s never met anyone so warm and genuine and  _beautiful_ , and he’s never known anyone to embody the words so naturally as Liam does.  
  
Even standing awkwardly on the doorstep he’d made Zayn’s breath catch. He still hadn’t quite gotten it back.  
  
The thing is, Zayn thinks as he stands in front of his mirror with the tie loose around his neck, he’s not exactly sure how to act on it. He never quite got the whole grab-somebody-sexy-tell-’em-hey thing down, and besides, this was  _Liam_ \- his flatmate of not even 6 months, his rock and his roll, and all around the best thing to ever happen to him. His showing up in the first place was blessing enough, Zayn figures, so why take the chance? Why risk the balance they’d found to satisfy the tightness in his chest, the ache just behind his ribs?  
  
( _Why not?_  a tiny voice asks in the back of his mind, and he bites his tongue before it can go any further.)  
  
So he’ll keep it there, confined to his ribcage, and he’ll deal with it. Like always.  
  
He tightens the knot, straightens his collar, and steps out of the room.  
  
\--  
  
Zayn is just reaching for the door handle when Liam comes bounding in from the next room and hands him a scrap of paper.  
  
“Shopping list,” he explains, as Zayn looks confusedly at it. “We just need a couple things, I forgot to go out while you weren’t here.”  
  
“Too busy cleaning the flat for the second time?” Zayn laughs, but shoves the list into his pocket. “I’ll stop by the shop on my way back. If this goes well, I mean,” he adds, quieter, and straightens his tie nervously.  
  
Liam shakes his head. “Anyone who doesn’t want to hire you is an idiot,” he says seriously, and bats Zayn’s hands away to fix the tie himself.  
  
With their faces so close together, Zayn has to resist the urge to lean slightly forward, just a few inches and then--  
  
“There we go,” Liam says with a smile, and steps back. Zayn manages to mumble his thanks, and turns back to the door. Taking a deep breath, he turns the knob.  
  
“Zayn?” He looks back over his shoulder at Liam, who’s grin grows wider as soon as Zayn meets his eyes. “You’re gonna smash it.”  
  
He can’t help but smile then, watching Liam skip back into the living room, and steps out the door feeling quite confident--  
  
Until his foot catches on something and he nearly trips down the stairs.  
  
There’s a wicker basket sitting just outside the door, full of shiny red apples. Zayn takes a moment to stare at it, brow furrowed, before deciding on the best course of action.  
  
“Er, Liam?” He calls through the doorway, carefully lifting the basket and stepping back inside. There’s no note attached anywhere, he realises. Who had left it for them? “You didn’t happen to pick up some secret admirer while I was gone, did you?”  
  
He meets Zayn in the hall with a confused smile, but when he sees the apples he freezes, his expression immediately turning fearful. Zayn slowly sets the basket down. “You don’t have, like, a terrible fruit allergy you didn’t tell me about, right? We can get rid of them, it’s cool--”  
  
“No, it’s, um.” Liam doesn’t take his eyes off the basket, taking a small step back. “It’s not an allergy, don’t worry. Actually, maybe worry a bit?”  
  
“What--”  
  
“We do have to get rid of them, though, because they might be- um,” he pauses, looks up at Zayn. “... Poisoned.”  
  
Zayn blinks. “Poisoned.”  
  
“Or worse,” Liam says, and starts stepping backwards down the hallway. “And I’m really, really sorry, but I have to leave.”  
  
Zayn opens his mouth to protest, to ask  _Liam seriously what the fuck_ , but Liam has already disappeared into his room. He follows him, stopping in the doorway to watch, dumbfounded, as he throws clothing into a backpack. He doesn’t look at Zayn, even when he hefts the bag over his shoulder and hurries past him out of the room.  
  
“Um,” Zayn starts, trailing after him through the kitchen, “what’s going on here?”  
  
Liam opens and closes a few cupboards before answering, his face turned away. “Someone’s going to show up here looking for me, and I need to not be here when they do.” He moves on into the living room, and Zayn follows.  
  
“Who, though?”  
  
“Does it matter?”  
  
“Uh, yes?” Zayn stops in the middle of the room, but Liam still doesn’t glance up as he flits around, picking things up and putting them down. “I mean, are we talking, like, police trouble? Drugs? Are you secretly a drug dealer?”  
  
Liam laughs, sounding tired and a bit hysterical, and shakes his head. “No, I just... I have something they want.” His jaw clenches, as if saying it out loud solidified the thought in his mind, and he starts to move towards the door.  
  
“You--”  
  
“The longer I stay, the more danger I put you in,” he says, as if that excuses all of it.  
  
“Liam--” Zayn grabs his arm and pulls, turning him back around and forcing their eyes to meet. “Can we take a breather for a minute? I nearly killed myself because of a bunch of apples, and suddenly you’re rushing around because someone’s searching for you, going on about how you need to leave,” he curls his fingers tighter around Liam’s wrist, “and meanwhile, I have no fucking idea what’s just happened--”  
  
“I’m sorry,” he cuts Zayn off, wincing slightly. “I- I don’t want to go. But they’ll tear this place apart if they find me here- and you along with it. God, I just--” He swallows hard, looks down at the floor. “I thought this was it, you know? I thought that it’d be safe, and I could just stay here with you--”  
  
His voice breaks, and Zayn pulls him closer on impulse. “Hey, hey. Liam. Look at me.” He puts his hands on either side of Liam’s neck, tipping his jaw up so their eyes lock. “Deep breaths, yeah? I’m still here, you’re safe.”  
  
He nods, but Zayn can feel him tremble. He slides his hands from Liam’s neck onto his shoulders, squeezing gently. “Listen, I want to help, but I need to know exactly what’s happening here.”  
  
Liam hesitates, but nods again. He lets out a long shaky breath. “Okay.”  
  
“Good. You can start with who’s looking for you- Or, wait, how about what’s with the apples?”  
  
He smiles a bit and steps back, sliding out from under Zayn’s grip on his shoulders. “I’ll show you.”  
  
Zayn follows him back to the front hall, where the wicker basket is still sitting. Liam steps cautiously up to it, grabs an apple, and backs away from Zayn with it cupped in his hands. “Watch.”  
  
He holds the apple for all of 5 seconds before he hisses and lets it fall to the floor with a wet thud, and Zayn stares as the shiny red skin turns rapidly black. He looks up at Liam, mostly to ask what exactly that was, when he notices the other boy’s pained expression, and the bright red welts on his palms.  
  
“Your hands, Li, oh my god--” He rushes to his side, but Liam shakes him off.  
  
“No, don’t, just wait. Look.” He holds his hands out as he says it, and after a moment a faint glow seems to come up from beneath his skin. Slowly, delicately, the welts shrink and fade, and the skin mends itself. Liam takes a deep, shuddering breath and looks up at Zayn.  
  
He blinks a few times. “...Alright, then,” he says slowly, and Liam squints at him.  
  
“You’re not freaking out,” he says, genuinely confused. “Why aren’t you freaking out?”  
  
“Not sure, to be honest.” Zayn looks back and forth between the blackened apple and Liam’s unharmed palms. “I’m probably in shock or something.”  
  
There’s a beat, and then- “So, you gonna tell me what just happened, or...”  
  
Liam bites his lip. “It’s--” he stops, struggles for the words. “It’s magic, okay? I’ve got a tiny,  _tiny_  bit of magic. But this kind, the healing kind, it’s rare. Like, maybe one person every hundred or so years has it.”  
  
Zayn nods slowly. “And you’re that one person.”  
  
“Yeah,” Liam sighs, sounding a bit like he can’t believe it himself. “But there’s this- this Witch, and she’s searching for me cause she wants it. She’s got magic of her own already, but she’s greedy and, y’know, de-aging spells only go so far, and--”  
  
“Okay, no, hold on,” Zayn cuts him off, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Magic and spells, alright, yeah. Basic Harry Potter stuff, right?” Liam makes a confused sort of face, but Zayn ignores it. “But you’re telling me there are  _actually_  wizards and shit wandering around London?”  
  
“Um,” Liam says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not exactly.”  
  
“Alright, shoot.”  
  
He shuffles his feet. “Remember when I first moved in, and I told you I wasn’t from around here?”  
  
“Of course.” Like he would ever forget anything Liam told him. “Wolverhampton, you said.”  
  
“Yeah, I lied,” Liam says quickly. “It’s, um, a bit farther than Wolverhampton, I’m afraid.”  
  
Zayn feels like he really shouldn’t be surprised. “Should I sit down for this?”  
  
\--  
  
“Somewhere in the UK, probably in the north but maybe not - I don’t really know the geography, to he honest - there’s this gate. Well, less of a gate, more of a doorway. There’s not even a door attached, it’s just-- whatever. Okay. Moving on.  
  
“There’s this gate, and it’s connected to-- how do I say this. It’s connected to another world, sort of. See, you can’t just walk through the gate and end up there, it has to be opened first, which takes magic. Anyway, it’s been closed for a while. Like, a  _long_  while.  
  
“So the, uh, other world - it doesn’t really have a proper name you can pronounce in English - is where I’m from. There’s still humans over there, and animals and that, but there’s also... more? Like dragons, sometimes, and goblins. There’s all kinds of creatures like that, good ones and bad ones. And there’s this Witch.  
  
“She’s got a reputation over there for being kind of really awful? So, when she said she wanted whatever I’ve got, it was, um. Not good. At all. The thing is, it’s kind of difficult to hide from someone who can enchant anyone or anything into doing her bidding, so... I went through the gate.  
  
“I figured it’d be safe on this side, since, y’know, there’s no dragons, but... I guess the gate didn’t close properly after I came through. So the Witch is over here, too. And now she’s found me.  
  
“It was bound to happen, I guess. She’s basically the most powerful sorceresses in the entire world- the other world, I mean. Anyway. The point is, she’s coming here to take my magic and probably kill me slowly. So I have to leave, like, now.”  
  
Zayn lets Liam catch his breath while he takes it all in. Witches and magic and transdimensional travel? It’s all a bit fantastical, but somehow he’s not as shell-shocked as he feels like he should be.  
  
Then again, there was always something a bit extraordinary about Liam.  
  
“Okay,” he says, sounding almost calm. “I’ll go with you.”  
  
Liam’s head snaps up. “What? No.” Zayn brushes past him, heading to his bedroom, and he follows close behind. “No, Zayn, you can’t, seriously--”  
  
“Why not?” He picks up the still-not-unpacked bag from Bradford and slings it over his shoulder, while Liam splutters.  
  
“You don’t even know where I’m going--”  
  
“So?”  
  
His brow furrows. “Zayn, I can’t ask you to do this!”  
  
“You didn’t ask,” he points out, loosening his tie and tugging it off over his head. “I’m doing this of my own free will, promise.”  
  
“Thats not the point,” Liam huffs, and Zayn rolls his eyes.  
  
“Alright, look,” he says, stepping closer so they’re face to face. “Tell me right now, right here, that you want to go at this alone, and I’ll let you.”  
  
And Liam tries, he really does, and even manages to look Zayn in the eyes for a moment, but he eventually hangs his head in defeat.  
  
“This is definitely the worst decision you’ve ever made,” he mutters as they head back to the front door.  
  
Zayn just smiles. “Could be, yeah.”  
  
\--  
  
It’s not until they’re halfway down the stairs, with everything they figured they’d need in their respective backpacks, that Liam says anything else. He whirls around so fast that Zayn is worried he’s going to start yelling, but instead he just stares at him, wide-eyed.  
  
“Oh my god,” Liam says, like he’s had an epiphany, and he reaches out and pulls at the sleeve of Zayn’s dress shirt. “You had that interview today, and-” His face falls, and he looks a bit like he’s about to cry. “And now you’re missing it.”  
  
Zayn blinks. Of all the things to be concerned about, Liam is distressed over him missing an opportunity for employment?  
  
He shrugs. “I didn’t really want that job anyway.”  
  
It’s partly a lie - he’d circled the date of the interview at least 5 times on the calendar, and he’d been planning exactly what to say during it for around 2 weeks. Deciding to leave with Liam, though, it hadn’t even crossed his mind. Liam needed his help, and that was enough to make him disregard all that he would be giving up by going.  
  
It definitely isn’t the smartest or safest thing to do, to run off with him to god-knows-where because an evil witch (that he didn’t know actually existed until about 5 minutes prior) wanted to kill him for his magical powers (which he was also not aware of).  
  
But, Zayn supposes, standing a stair above Liam and watching him break into a grateful smile, he would always choose the danger over being without him.  
  
\--  
  
“Oh, shit,” Zayn says as soon as they reach the sidewalk. “We don’t have a car.”  
  
Liam stops by the curb, glancing up and down the street. “I know.”  
  
“Don’t you think that’s going to be a bit of a problem?” Zayn asks, watching him. “I mean, I don’t think we can make our escape or whatever by, like, train?” He imagines them running along the top of a train car with a dragon hot on their heels. Yeah, probably not. “So unless you’ve got a secret jet plane hidden somewhere...”  
  
“Well, not a jet plane, but-” Liam grins, and he waves at a vehicle coming towards them. “-it’s pretty close.”  
  
A light blue [volkswagon bus](http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm8.staticflickr.com%2F7121%2F7514493242_3dc6deb50e.jpg&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNE010lB6UKmfv-nLMVqw_xGMeVsjg) pulls up to the curb and rolls to a stop in a slow, lurching sort of way. Zayn stares, not sure if he’s more confused about its sudden appearance or Liam’s massive smile.  
  
“In what way,” he asks, “is this ‘pretty close’ to a jet plane?” But the driver’s side door opens, and a slender boy in a denim jacket and sunglasses steps out.  
  
Liam looks a bit worried for a moment, like he’s not sure whether to approach him or not, but the boy smirks at him, letting the door swing shut and strolling over.  
  
“So,” he says loudly, taking off the sunglasses and hanging them on the collar of his shirt. He cocks his hip and raises his eyebrows at Liam. “What have you done this time?”  
  
Liam laughs, sounding relieved, and tackles the boy into a hug. They twirl in a full circle before pulling apart, and the boy seems to finally notice Zayn standing off to one side. He looks him up and down, one hand on Liam’s shoulder.  
  
“Hello, what’s this?”  
  
“Right,” Liam starts, eyes bright with excitement. “Zayn, this is Louis. He’s from, uh. The other world. Like me.” If Louis is surprised that Zayn knows about the dimensional-travel factor, he’s too busy scrutinizing him to show it.  
  
“And who’s he?” Louis asks, crossing his arms.  
  
“This is Zayn,” Liam says, a little breathlessly, and he smiles even wider when their eyes meet. “We share a flat.”  
  
Zayn nods at Louis. “Nice to meet you.”  
  
He smiles back, a little too sweetly. “Charmed.”  
  
“So, remember how I’ve got that healing-magic-thing?” Liam continues, stepping between them. “With the Witch and all that? Louis is my--” He stops, looks over at him. “- guardian, sort of? He came through the gate with me. And he’s got some  _brilliant_  magic.”  
  
“Oh, stop, you’re making me blush,” Louis stage-whispers, and covers Liam’s mouth with his hand. “Basically,” he says, turning to Zayn, “I’m here to help our dear Liam out in times of need, and especially in the event that this entire get-away-from-the-Witch plan goes to shit.” He pauses, looks back at Liam. “Which it has.”  
  
Zayn scratches his head. “Does that make you, like, his fairy godmother?”  
  
And Louis looks so terribly offended that Zayn has to bite his lip to keep from laughing.  
  
“Ex _cuse_  me?” He takes a step forward, releasing his grip on Liam. “Do I  _look_  like somebody’s mother? I mean, alright, fairy? Not quite, but it’s debatable. God?” He shrugs. “Closer. But  _mother_?”  
  
Liam clears his throat and steps up to Zayn’s side. “He’s more like a wizard,” he tells him quietly, while Louis rants and raves. “... Sort of.”  
  
It’s then that the back door of the volkswagon slides open, and two other boys tumble out onto the sidewalk.  
  
“Lou,” one whines, curls flopping into his eyes as he pushes himself up on his elbows. “Louis, that  _hurt_.”  
  
The other, blonde with a wide grin, jumps to his feet immediately and runs at Liam, yelling and throwing his arms around him. They almost fall over, but Liam laughs anyway.  
  
Smiling fondly, Louis pulls the curly one to his feet. “Nice of you two to join us,” he says, and wraps an arm around the boy’s waist.  
  
“Woulda been out sooner if you hadn’t  _magicked the door shut_ ,” the blonde one mutters, disentangling himself from Liam.  
  
Louis shrugs, smirking. “I’ve gotta keep you on your toes, it’s in my contract.”  
  
“Did I miss something?” Zayn whispers, and Liam smiles apologetically.  
  
“Those two are Louis’, um, apprentices,” he explains, watching them complain about how very long it had taken to break the spell Louis had set on the door. “He’s teaching them how to use their magic properly, basically, and how much they can do with it.”  
  
“More wizards,” Zayn sighs. “Cool.”  
  
“I don’t even know who they are, actually,” Louis pipes up. “They just followed me home one day. Or, at least-” He nudges the curly one with his hip. “- Harry here did.”  
  
Zayn gapes.  
  
“Harr-- Are you joking me right now?” He looks at Liam, but he doesn’t seem to understand. “A wizard named Harry. Did you guys all go to Hogwarts?” He turns to the second boy. “If your name is Draco then I really don’t think I can take any of this seriously.”  
  
“... M’ name’s Niall,” the boy says with a confused look, just as Harry whispers, “Louis, what’s hog-warts?”  
  
“Um.” Liam steps forward, putting a hand on Zayn’s arm. “Sorry. He’s only known about this entire situation for... maybe 30 minutes?”  
  
“Him and Liam are  _roomies_ ,” Louis drawls, and Harry and Niall look at each other confusedly.  
  
Liam rolls his eyes. “He means we live together,” he says. “Harry, Niall... This is Zayn.”  
  
Zayn gives a little wave, and Niall grins, sticking out a hand for him to shake, but Louis chooses that exact moment to start tugging him and Harry towards the van.  
  
“Alright, come on, lads,” he calls, as the back double doors open on their own. “We haven’t got  _all_  day.”  
  
Following Liam’s lead, Zayn throws his bag in the back of the van and comes around the side, where Niall is ducking into the backseat and Louis is trying to convince Harry to let Liam sit up front. He relents, after a great deal of pouting, and before Zayn knows it the five of them are piled in, himself squished between Niall and Harry.  
  
“Erm, Louis,” Niall starts, squirming uncomfortably as he tries to find his seatbelt. “Did you make it smaller back here?” He nearly elbows Zayn in the head as he twists back around.  
  
“What? Of course not.” Glancing up, Zayn’s pretty sure he catches Louis smirking at him in the rearview mirror. “Why, is it feeling a bit stuffy?” Beside him, Liam smacks his arm.  
  
Zayn sighs as they pull away from the curb, managing to avoid knocking knees with anyone as he settles in. He glances at Liam but can’t catch his eye, and so he resigns himself to what he figures will be a rather lengthy ride. He realises, as Harry and Niall immediately begin a loud conversation across him, that he actually has no idea where exactly it is that they’re going. He’s stuck in a volkswagon with 4  _literally_  unearthly people - 3 of whom are wizards,  _real wizards_  - and he doesn’t even know where they’re headed.  
  
Zayn, to say the least, was not expecting this.  
  
\--  
  
It’s not until a few hours down the road that Zayn starts feeling boxed in, and it’s around that time that he starts to wonder if Louis knows where they’re going any better than he does. They’ve driven through more deserted countryside in one day than Zayn has in his entire life.  
  
It doesn’t help that it’s also the most awkward situation he can ever recall being included in - or, more accurately, not included. What with Harry and Niall’s endless word games on either side of him (“Soap.” “Picnic.” “Uh, cat.” “Towel.” “... Louis!” “You can’t say ‘Louis’ everytime you get an L, Harry--”), and the way Liam, in his direct line of sight, keeps leaning over to murmur to Louis, Zayn feels rather like the fifth wheel. Which is something he never thought he’d have to use to describe himself.  
  
Overall, it’s a day of firsts.  
  
Part of him reckons this entire thing might be a dream, and that he’ll wake up back at the flat to birds and perfect coffee and  _Liam_  - but he’s pretty sure even his worst nightmares couldn’t come up with someone like Louis.  
  
He had a habit of swerving onto the dirt and gravel at the side of the road every time Zayn looked about to nod off, and the entire van would lurch and shudder just long enough for Zayn to be jolted awake before Louis set them right again.  
  
“Woops, sorry lads,” he would muse from the front seat, blatantly ignoring the glare Zayn sent his way. “Never quite got the hang of this whole driving thing, you know, it’s a bit different from what we’ve got back home.”  
  
Which he probably isn’t kidding about, actually, since he can barely keep them going in a straight line for longer than a few minutes. How had Zayn gotten himself into this, exactly?  
  
“Alright, Zayn?” Liam asks, twisting around in his seat to smile at him.  
  
Right. “Y-yeah, just fine.”  
  
Niall leans forward, taps Liam’s headrest. “Hey, it’s gonna get dark real soon.”  
  
“Yeah.” He looks at Louis. “Are we stopping, then?”  
  
Harry throws his hands up, nearly smacking Zayn in the face. “Please, yes,” he groans. “I haven’t moved my legs properly in I don’t even know how long.”  
  
“Also hungry,” Niall adds. “We’re both very hungry.”  
  
Louis sighs dramatically, but turns the next corner they come across, and within 20 minutes they roll into a town. Zayn wonders, as they pull up in front of a small hotel, just how far they are from London - and whether or not it’s far enough.  
  
Harry and Niall immediately clamber out of the van, and Zayn follows more slowly, being careful not to get caught in the tangle of seatbelts.  
  
“Hey, uh,” he starts, as the door slides shut behind him. “Why are we stopping?”  
  
Louis answers, of course, rolling his eyes. “Because, all of us being at least partly human, sleep is a necessity?”  
  
“No, I know that,” Zayn huffs. “I meant-- isn’t there some evil witch after us?”  
  
“Yeah, and?”  
  
“And isn’t it, like, _really bad_  if she catches up?” He glances at Liam, who’s stretching his arms while Harry does lunges beside him. “Shouldn’t we drive through the night, cover as much ground as possible?”  
  
Smirking, Louis crosses his arms and steps a bit closer. “Tell me, Zayn, are you afraid of the dark?”  
  
Zayn blinks. “I- what? No, of course not--”  
  
“Well,” Louis sighs, “you probably should be.”  
  
He winks at Zayn and turns around, striding over to the hotel entrance. Harry immediately follows, pulling Liam along, but Niall hangs back. He steps up to Zayn’s side with his hands in his pockets, glancing up at the overcast sky.  
  
“He’s just trying to get you riled up, y’know,” he says, and Zayn follows his gaze - had it been this close to dusk while they were driving? Was it already so late? “We’ll be fine, really.”  
  
“You’d better be right,” Zayn mumbles. “I didn’t come on this road trip to get killed by a dragon, or whatever.” Niall laughs, tugging his arm and leading him towards the hotel.  
  
“Dragons don’t come out at night, man. It’s Whist Hounds you should watch out for.” He pauses, looking back over his shoulder, then picks up his pace as he steers them to the doors. “If you’re hung up on dragons, though, don’t worry about it. Haz n’ I fought one once. Turns out it wasn’t a dragon at all, in the end, just a real clever snake, but-” He trails off as they reach the entrance, and waits until Zayn meets his eyes. “Just... keep it in mind, yeah?”  
  
Zayn swallows nervously. “Keep what in mind, exactly?”  
  
Niall pulls the door open and glances back at him, one eyebrow raised. “Some weird shit out there, mate,” he says, like it’s obvious. “We’re not the first ones to come through to this side.”  
  
He steps through into the warm lobby, jogging to catch up to the other three, and Zayn wonders if, had he known he’d be actually  _risking his life_  on this wizard road trip, he would’ve bothered getting out of bed.  
  
\--  
  
It ends up being much easier to get a room than Zayn had imagined. The five of them walk right past the front desk and down the hall, and Louis pauses momentarily before opening the third door on the left and leading them inside. There’s a small table with chairs, two beds, one of which Liam and Zayn’s bags are already resting on, and a couch, which Niall promptly throws himself at.  
  
Louis is rolling his eyes before Zayn even opens his mouth. “Oh, calm yourself,” he sighs, shucking off his jacket and tossing it over the back of a chair. “I’m capable of a lot of things, and stretching the fabric of reality for easy access to a hotel room is  _hardly_  even one of the impressive ones.”  
  
“Not so good at modesty, though,” Liam says, sliding past Zayn to sit on the closer bed. “Niall, you alright there?”  
  
“Once we get dinner, I will be,” he mumbles into the cushions.  
  
Louis heaves another sigh, heading back to the door. “The things I do for you and your insatiable appetite. Back in a bit, don’t set anything on fire. Harry?” He glances over at him as he steps out into the hall, eyebrows raised. “Accompany me?”  
  
Harry grins and practically sprints out of the room, and as soon as the door closes Zayn can hear them giggling behind it.  
  
“So,” Liam starts, after a beat. “Everything okay? Making a bit more sense?”  
  
Zayn smiles, and sits down next to him. “I think I need you to draw me a diagram of the past 12 hours.”  
  
“That bad, huh?”  
  
“Worse, probably.” He rubs his temples, and Liam puts a hand on his shoulder. “At least we’re not on the road anymore. I could use a few hours without Louis hitting every single bump.”  
  
Liam frowns. “Sorry, he’s a bit--”  
  
“-- of a douche?”  
  
“-- um, protective.” He looks down, knocks his knee against Zayn’s. “He hasn’t seen me in a while, and he’s not really sure what to make of you just yet. Give him a bit, he’ll come around--”  
  
On the other side of the room, Niall sits up. “Zayn,” he calls, and Liam lets his hand fall away. “Two questions. Do you know how to work a television, and can you find me this thing called ‘The Food Network’?”  
  
\--  
  
They decide on sleeping arrangements quickly enough, figuring it’s best to leave Niall where he is and giving one bed to Liam and Zayn, the other going to Louis and Harry.  
  
Actual sleeping, though, doesn’t happen until much later. Louis refuses to let anyone get into bed until Harry and Niall manage to bring the kettle to a boil using only magic, and there’s a heated game of never-have-I-ever that’s too loud for anyone to sleep through (“Never have I ever... turned Louis into a badger during a lesson.” “That was one time, Harry! Never have I ever broken six teapots in one go, so  _suck it!_ ”).  
  
By the time they start turning the lights off, Zayn is more than ready to collapse onto the bed, but Niall asks him, quietly so the other boys don’t hear, if he can teach him more about how the television works. Cursing his good manners, Zayn stays up another hour watching cooking shows, and Niall grins the entire time.  
  
“You’re a good guy,” he mumbles to Zayn at one point, and he tries to go in for a fist-bump but misses. He rolls over on the couch instead, his feet resting in Zayn’s lap. Zayn sighs but finds himself smiling even as he attempts to maneuver himself away without throwing Niall off the couch.  
  
When he finally climbs into bed, Liam rolls over to face him, smiling tiredly.  
  
“Hey,” he says, just above a whisper. “You doing alright?”  
  
“Yeah,” Zayn yawns. “Just really, really tired.”  
  
“You sure?”  
  
“Well, if I think about it-” He looks up at the ceiling, considering. “I don’t know where we are at all, the leader of this wizard road trip hates me, and it turns out my best mate is pretty much straight out of a fairytale.” He pulls the comforter up a bit higher. “Life is just peachy.”  
  
Liam winces. “I am sorry, you know,” he mumbles. “About all of this. I didn’t want you to get involved.”  
  
“You don’t need to apologize.” Zayn reaches out and finds Liam’s hand under the blankets. “I would’ve come along no matter what.”  
  
They lay their clasped hands on the sheets between them, and when Liam breaks into a smile Zayn feels the sudden urge to lean in and kiss him.  
  
Instead, he says, “Tell me about magic.”  
  
Liam blinks at him, surprised. “It’s hardly a bedtime story.”  
  
“Tell me anyway.”  
  
He laughs breathily, shifting a bit closer. “Fine, but don’t close your eyes. I don’t want you to fall asleep and leave me talking to no one.”  
  
“Never,” Zayn says solemnly. Liam is just about the only familiar thing within 200 miles, and damn if he’s going to let him be the last one awake. “Barely even tired anymore.”  
  
Liam smiles, squeezing his hand. “Okay. So. Magic.”  
  
\--  
  
(Later, when he wakes up to Liam curled towards him and their fingers still brushing, Zayn only remembers bits and pieces.  
  
“Everything’s got it’s own sort of magic, like how trees grow and fire burns,” Liam had whispered, “but it’s different when it’s in a person. Magic isn’t just a thing you can learn from a book, you know? You have to be born with it.” He had met Zayn’s gaze, just then. “You have to be  _meant_  for it.”  
  
Then Niall pounces on Louis, shoving Harry off the bed, and with an indignant squawk he’s got Liam jumping up to find the light switch, and the soft quiet of early morning is over.)

\--

 Zayn is 80% sure that, when they pile into the van, the backseat has gotten bigger.  
  
He can move his legs without feeling like he’s going to slide his hip out of place, and Niall even gives up the window seat so he’s no longer at risk of being hit by Harry’s flailing limbs. Louis definitely is, however, and Zayn feels a bit better about the fact that Liam is still sitting in the front.  
  
They’re on the road for barely fifteen minutes before Niall’s stomach growls loudly.  
  
Louis snickers. “Breakfast time, Nialler?”  
  
“Seconded,” Liam sighs, glancing out the window at the buildings they pass. “D’you think there’s a diner or something around here?”  
  
Harry leans forward and tugs on the collar of Louis’ jacket. “Too bad we don’t have a map.”  
  
Zayn gapes. “Are you serious? We’ve been going this _entire time_  without--” He cuts himself off, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a deep breath. “Do you even know where we’re going?”  
  
“Of course I do,” Louis scoffs. “And I don’t need a map to get there.”  
  
“You wanna tell me where exactly ‘there’ is?”  
  
“Maybe if you say  _please_ \--”  
  
“Stop everything!” Niall shouts over both of them, already unclipping his seatbelt. “There’s a pancake house right fuckin’ there, and if you don’t pull over I’m gonna tuck n’ roll.”  
  
Louis does pull over, thankfully, and inside the restaurant breakfast is had in relative silence - aside from Niall’s cheery humming as he shovels pancakes into his mouth, and Liam clearing his throat loudly when Harry licks his fork, in a noticeably slow sort of way, in Louis’ general direction.  
  
Niall finishes first, of course, and pushes his empty plate away with a satisfied sigh. “Right,” he says, sliding out of the booth. “I’m gonna check out the kitchen.”  
  
With a soft smile, Louis nudges Harry in the side. “An absolutely  _riveting_  source of entertainment, I’m sure.”  
  
Harry laughs but stands up with Niall, and pulls Liam out of his seat as well. “We’ve gotten really good at filter spells,” he tells him excitedly. “They won’t even know we’re there.”  
  
Liam glances over his shoulder at Zayn, shooting him an apologetic sort of smile before the three of them rush off toward the kitchen. Zayn stares after him until they get to the door and, without even a glance around, march inside.  
  
And maybe he watches the door for a bit longer after that, because when he finally turns his attention back to Louis, sitting across from him, the other boy raises his eyebrows expectantly.  
  
Zayn shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “What?”  
  
“Nothing,” Louis says, smirking. “You’re gawking a bit, is all.”  
  
“Am not.” He winces at how childish it sounds, and deliberately keeps his eyes on the tabletop.  
  
Louis laughs. “Come on, we’re all friends here--”  
  
“Not really, no.”  
  
“Fine, but we are five lads in relatively close quarters for the next few days. I figure the easier it is to know what you’re all thinking, the smoother this will go.”  
  
Zayn glares at him. “So what am I thinking right now?”  
  
“Other than ‘fuck off, Louis’?” He shrugs. “I don’t know, you tell me.”  
  
Zayn rolls his eyes and turns away, glancing around the restaurant. The 3 other boys reappear after a few minutes, Harry and Niall highfiving each other, but he immediately zeroes in on Liam. They lock eyes from opposite sides of the room, and Zayn feels himself begin to smile as Liam gives a little wave.  
  
Louis, of course, notices, and nearly drops his fork as he does a double-take.  
  
“Oh my god,” he says, eyes widening. “Oh my god, you’re--  _Really?_ ”  
  
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zayn says quickly, trying to will away the blush he feels rising in his cheeks.  
  
Louis’ mouth goes from a surprised ‘o’ to a knowing smirk. “Oh, I _see_.”  
  
“Shut up,” Zayn grumbles, turning away again. Louis frowns, but when Harry and Niall bound up to the table, he listens to their recount of the kitchen adventure with a fond smile.  
  
Liam glances at Zayn, but he doesn’t look up.  
  
\--  
  
“Is it okay if we switch things up a bit, lads?” Louis asks when they reach the van. “Zayn, why don’t you sit up front, and you two-” He points at Niall and Harry, who brighten up immediately. “-can show off to Liam a little more. Alright?”  
  
As he slides into the passenger seat beside Louis, Zayn almost misses the crowdedness of the back, but he’s pretty sure Niall is showing Liam _something_  with fire and he’d rather not be in contact with it. He keeps his arms crossed and his eyes on the road ahead of them, ignoring Louis whenever he glances over.  
  
Louis, however, doesn’t  _do_  being ignored.  
  
“Right,” he starts, voice sharp. “So you can either watch the miles of English countryside fly by while you pout and brood, or you can tell me your sorrows. Just FYI, I’ve put up a spell so nothing will leave the front half of this vehicle. The choice is yours.”  
  
“I’m not pouting,” Zayn huffs.  
  
Louis nods. “Of course you aren’t.”  
  
“And I don’t have any sorrows to tell you about.”  
  
“Oh, so wanting to snog your magically-inclined-but-also-clueless best mate isn’t a problem for you?”  
  
Zayn glances warily at Liam in the rearview mirror, but Louis isn’t kidding- the three boys in the backseat can’t seem to hear them at all.  
  
“This road is very long and I am a very persistent man,” Louis says sagely, and Zayn kind of wishes the spell extended onto him as well.  
  
“I don’t want to snog Liam,” he tells him, but it doesn’t come out as firmly as he means it to, and Louis only arches an eyebrow at him. “Okay, maybe I do, sort of. But I can’t just- It’s  _Liam_.”  
  
Louis snorts. “So? Bat your eyelashes at him or something. Get on with it.”  
  
“No, I- It’s just, I’ve- I mean, he’s--” He searches for the words, fails to find them, and slumps down in his seat. “I swear I’m not fourteen,” he groans, and Louis leans over to pat his shoulder.  
  
“Happens to the best of us, mate,” he sighs, then looks thoughtful. “Actually, that’s a lie. I’m pretty sure you’re the only one with a hardcore crush on your magical roomie. Sorry.”  
  
Zayn glares. “Why do you care? You don’t even _like_  me.”  
  
“I don’t like you  _much_ ,” Louis corrects him. “I do, however, like Liam quite a bit. It’s not hard to see that he enjoys having you around, so I’m putting up with it for his sake.”  
  
“Oh, thanks.”  
  
“Not a problem.” He shoots Zayn a cheeky grin and continues. “He’s got a good heart, that one. He’ll give everything he has and apologize when he’s got nothing left. Would’ve made a great king back home, its a shame.”  
  
Zayn nods along with him until Louis’ words sink in. “Wait, back up. He was going to be--”  
  
“Oh, he didn’t tell you about that?” Louis laughs. “Yeah, he’s the crown prince. We are in the presence of royalty.”  
  
And Zayn had thought that nothing could surprise him anymore. “So my flatmate is an actual Disney prince. Brilliant.”  
  
Louis makes a face. “Disney, what--”  
  
“Why wouldn’t he tell me that?” Zayn cries, cutting him off. “Jesus, he must’ve lived in a palace or some shit and I barely even remember to put the dishes away!”  
  
“Well--”  
  
“I am the biggest downgrade ever. He  _attracts birds_ when he sings and I didn’t even- Fuck _sake_.” He buries his face in his hands.  
  
“ _Well_ ,” Louis says again, when he’s sure Zayn isn’t going to have another outburst. “As much as I’d like to agree with you, I don’t think you need to worry about being a ‘downgrade’, or whatever. He’s been through worse than a 2-bedroom flat.”  
  
“Like what?” Zayn mumbles.  
  
Louis shrugs, turning his eyes back to the road. “You’ll have to ask him about that one, mate. Not my place to say.”  
  
They’re silent for a few moments, then Louis sits up a bit straighter. “Oh no,” he gasps, and Zayn’s head snaps up.  
  
“What? What’ve you done?”  
  
“I’ve been hit with the sudden urge to pull over,” Louis says, and does so. “Niall,” he calls once the van has stopped, and all three boys in the backseat look up. “D’you want to show us how good you are at extreme weather?”  
  
\--  
  
The five of them stand in the middle of an empty field, Zayn and Liam off to one side while Niall conjures miniature tornadoes and sets them after Harry. Louis, supervising the spell-casting, catches Zayn’s eye and winks, and Zayn makes a mental note to trip him the next time he has a chance.  
  
Liam nudges his shoulder, snapping him out of his plans for Louis’ demise. “Didn’t really get a chance to talk to you this morning,” he says softly, even though the other boys are shouting too loudly to hear them. “You sleep okay?”  
  
Zayn gives a tight nod and tries very hard not to think about the royalty factor.  
  
“I guess it’s just weird to see you awake and operational,” Liam continues, watching as Harry gets his feet swept out from under him. “Usually you don’t even get out of bed until the coffee maker’s on.”  
  
Christ on a bike, he’d had a prince making his morning coffee.  
  
“You,” Zayn blurts out, stepping away from Liam. “You were going to be the king.”  
  
“... Oh.” He laughs nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “Um, yeah. Louis told you about that, did he?”  
  
“You had subjects and lands and you lived in a castle, a real castle, and then you lived in my flat and- and oh my god I’m so sorry.”  
  
Liam looks increasingly alarmed as Zayn goes on. “It’s not that big of a deal, why are you- Zayn, are you okay?” He reaches out to touch his shoulder, but Zayn twists away.  
  
“This is definitely a big deal! You did my chores for me! You made me coffee every morning!” He drags his hands through his hair, exasperated. “I feel like- like I’ve been getting my teeth cleaned by Barack Obama!”  
  
Liam looks puzzled for a moment, and Zayn is about to launch into the presidential history of America when Liam suddenly grabs his hands, and he feels all the air leave his lungs.  
  
“Let’s just... pause for a bit, yeah?” Liam says, smiling but still looking worried, and he pulls Zayn’s arms down to rest at his sides. “Yes, I was a prince. Dad’s the king, and I was going to inherit the kingdom and all the land and power that came with.” He looks down at his feet. “But, see, the keyword here is  _‘was’_.”  
  
Zayn’s brow furrows. “Why? Aren’t you still entitled to all that?”  
  
“Well, I’m not exactly there to claim it, am I?” his mouth twists into a smirk. “We all make sacrifices, I guess.”  
  
“That’s such crap,” Zayn growls, yanking his hands out of Liam’s grip. “The king and queen- they’re your  _parents_. Yeah, you’re not there right now, but why wouldn’t they wait for you?”  
  
They’re both silent for a moment, Liam’s eyes still downcast, and then-  
  
“I left, Zayn,” he says softly, a sad curve to his lips. “When rumours about the Witch reached the castle, I knew they’d be safer without me.” He looks down again, shuffles his feet. “So I left. I ran off and didn’t let myself look back.  
  
“The thing is, leaving the castle behind meant leaving a lot of other things as well. Like whatever inheritance I had. A crown. The kingdom in general.” He swallows hard. “Mum and dad.”  
  
He sniffs a bit and pauses, and Zayn’s hands twitch, wanting to pull him into his chest. After a moment, Liam takes a deep breath, steadying himself, and continues.  
  
“I was lucky, though. I managed to find this village full of other people with magic. That’s where I met Louis and them, actually.” The corners of his mouth quirk a little bit, and he glances over to where the other three boys are still running around, kicking up dust and twisting it into cyclones. “He didn’t like me at first, either, but he still helped me out when I needed it. He told me about the gate, and when the Witch came round, he went with me to find it. And, um.” He smiles sheepishly, gesturing around them. “Here we are, I guess?”  
  
Zayn does reach out to him then, wraps his arms around his shoulders and tugs him into a tight hug. Liam is tense for a split second before settling into it, tucking his face into Zayn’s neck.  
  
“I’m never letting you wash the dishes again,” Zayn murmurs.  
  
“I- What?”  
  
“It’s probably treason or something.” He pauses, then adds, “Your Majesty.”  
  
Liam pulls his head back, looking at Zayn with mock-offense. “Don’t you  _dare_  start doing that.”  
  
Niall chooses that moment to bound up to them, grinning wide, Louis following more slowly with his arm slung over Harry’s shoulders. Liam pulls away but keeps one hand resting gently on the small of Zayn’s back, and holds it there as the five of them march back to the van. Zayn tries to focus on anything else but the warm press through his shirt, but doesn’t pick up much- he knows Louis spends the entire walk back talking about how great Niall was, and that Niall beams as he practically skips along beside them. Harry pouts the whole time, up until they reach the van and Louis tells him that he gets to join him in the front seat.  
  
The interior has expanded again, and Niall nearly leap-frogs over the others in order to claim the new second row of backseats entirely for himself. Liam’s hand moves just a little, to usher Zayn into the row just behind Harry and Louis, and then it’s gone altogether- but only until Liam sits down next to him, pressed against his side.  
  
“It’s like wizard space in here,” Zayn says, a bit dreamily.  
  
Harry twists around, giving him a strange look. “Well, you could call it that, yeah.”  
  
“No, I mean-” Zayn huffs a laugh. “It’s from a book. Don’t worry about it.”  
  
“Let it go, Hazza,” Louis says, when it looks like Harry is definitely going to worry about it. “We’re gonna be on the road a couple days yet. You’ll have time to grill him about Harry the Potter or whatever later.”  
  
Liam sits up a bit straighter. “We’re still making really good time though, aren’t we? I mean, less than a week...”  
  
“I feel like that’d be a lot more uplifting,” Zayn says, “if I knew where we were going in the first place.”  
  
“We never did explain that, did we,” Louis hums.  
  
Zayn rolls his eyes. “No, you really, really didn’t.”  
  
Laughing, Liam turns in his seat to face him. “Alright, so, you know that gate.”  
  
“Which one?”  
  
“The magic one.”  
  
“Right. Yes.”  
  
“We had to open it when us four came over to this side, and it was supposed to close behind us once we were through.” He glances at Louis. “But I guess it... didn’t?”  
  
“If we’re judging from the nice basket left on your doorstep that basically screamed ‘I’m Back, Bitches!’,” Louis considers, “I’d say that’s accurate.” He shrugs. “Maybe I missed a word or two during the incantation.”  
  
“Maybe it wanted us to have a way back,” Niall says from where he’s sprawled on the backseat. “Thinks it’s doing us a favour, or something.”  
  
“Or something.” Liam says, smiling. “The point is, the Witch followed us over, so we’re getting away from her. But we also need to find the gate and close it properly, before anything else comes through.”  
  
Zayn nods slowly. “What about the Witch, though? If she finds us?”  
  
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose,” Louis sighs. “Or, you know, when it comes to kill us in our sleep. Whichever.”  
  
“... Right.” Zayn clears his throat. “One more thing, about the basket and all that: what’s with the apples?”  
  
Liam snorts a laugh, and Zayn turns to him. “I’m serious! I asked you about them yesterday, but you didn’t tell me.”  
  
“She thinks she’s being funny,” Louis explains, smirking as he glances at Zayn in the rearview mirror. “There was this one time in this one town where sorcerers weren’t quite welcome. Some fruit was thrown, some civilians were obliterated, and the rest is history.”  
  
“...Oh,” Zayn says slowly. “I was thinking more, like, Snow White.”  
  
Louis frowns. “What? Is that one of those weird London-isms?”  
  
“No, it’s-” He glances at Liam, who looks just as confused as Louis. “It’s a fairytale? You know, the evil queen gives Snow White a poison apple, and she falls into a deep sleep...”  
  
“If it was actually poisoned,” Harry asks, twisting in his seat to face them, “why would she just fall asleep? Wouldn’t it kill her?”  
  
Louis laughs. “Really, Zayn, that’s not realistic at all.”  
  
“Besides,” Niall pipes up from behind them, “fairies don’t even  _have_  tails.”  
  
\--  
  
The hotel Louis finds for them later in the day is bigger than the first, and he leads them up to a room on the third floor with a wide window taking up nearly half of one wall. There’s still only two beds, but Zayn forgets to be confused about it when, after dinner and once Niall and Harry have finished being loud for the night, Liam stands by the window and starts to sing.  
  
It’s been a while, Zayn realises as he listens from where he’s reclined on their bed. Not since yesterday morning, when the birds crowded together on the kitchen windowsill. There’s not any birds gathered around to hear it this time, but Liam’s voice still brings a sort of quiet calm that rests over the room.  
  
Zayn grabs a travel magazine off the bedside table, just to keep his hands occupied. He’s missed this more than the flat and his bed and having coffee: the ring of Liam’s voice in his ears, the way it washes over him, sinks into his skin and settles between his ribs-  
  
Suddenly there’s a hand waving in front of his face, and he blinks a few times, regaining his bearings. “Hey, you okay?” Harry asks, perched on the end of the bed.  
  
“Y-yeah.” His eyes flicker to Liam, who’s still humming softly. “Why?”  
  
Harry shrugs. “You haven’t turned a page in, like, twenty minutes.”  
  
He immediately flips the magazine to a new page. “It’s small print, okay,” he stammers, looking down to hide the blush he knows is rising. “We left in a hurry and finding my glasses was  _not_  a priority, alright, evil witch and all that- Christ, don’t you have something else to do?”  
  
“I was gonna find a snack machine, actually,” Harry says, jumping up and heading towards the door.  
  
Zayn pauses, glancing at Louis and Niall sitting on the other bed. “He knows he’ll need money for that, right?”  
  
Louis only smiles, and Zayn heaves a sigh, fishing through his bag for his wallet and following Harry out into the hallway.  
  
When he turns the corner, though, Harry is leaning against the machine with a candy bar already in his hand. He slows to a stop and narrows his eyes. “How--?”  
  
“Niall and I have been magicking chocolate out of things for a long time,” he explains, tearing the wrapper off. “But now that you’re out here, can I ask you something?”  
  
“Um-” He glances back down the hall at their room, considering. Harry didn’t talk half as much as Niall did, usually too busy hanging off Louis’ every word, but Zayn himself hadn’t made much of an effort either. If they’re all stuck together for another couple days, it’s as good a time to start as any, he decides, and joins Harry by the snack machine. “Yeah, sure. Go for it.”  
  
Harry nods, chewing thoughtfully, then fixes Zayn with a hard stare.  
  
“Who,” he asks, voice low, “is Harry the Potter?”  
  
Zayn blinks, lets his words sink in. “... Are you serious?”  
  
“‘Course I am,” Harry says indignantly. “You’re the one who talks about him so much.”  
  
“Yeah, but Harry--”  
  
“And what’s hog-warts? I think Louis knows, but he won’t tell--”  
  
“Whoa, okay,” Zayn laughs, holding his hands up, and Harry looks at him expectantly. “Harry Potter isn’t a real guy, alright? He’s a character in a story. He’s a wizard- he’s got magic like you, but that’s where the similarities stop.”  
  
Harry furrows his brow. “Oh,” he says, and bites his lip for a moment. “What’s the story about?”  
  
“Well,” Zayn sighs, running a hand through his hair. “It’s kind of... really long.”  
  
Harry shrugs, takes another bite. “I’ve got time.”  
  
Zayn rolls his eyes, but finds himself smiling. “Alright, let’s do the shorthand version, shall we?  
  
“Basically, there’s this wizard, Harry Potter, who lives under some stairs. But he doesn’t know he’s a wizard. When he does find out though, he goes to this school- that’s what Hogwarts is- to learn how to use his magic. But he has to, like, keep it secret?” He scratches his head. “See, the thing is that no one outside of the wizard families really knows about magic. And even some of them that do know about it don’t like it at all. Like Harry’s aunt and uncle that he lives with- they hate it.  
  
“But Harry, he goes to this school and makes friends, and later there’s this dark wizard who wants to kill him but he never manages to- wait, that’s a lie, he does kill him once, but whatever. The power of love saves the day.”  
  
“And then what happens?” Harry’s eyes are wide, and Zayn laughs.  
  
“Nothing much, actually. That’s kind of what the entire story is about- love and friendship and saving the world.”  
  
“And fighting a dark witch.”  
  
“Wizard, but yeah- wait.” He narrows his eyes at Harry, who grins excitedly. “What?”  
  
“Think about it,” Harry says, and starts counting off on his fingers. “A wizard - Liam - goes to this awesome new place and makes friends - us - because  _normal_  people don’t like magic, and he’s had to keep it secret. Meanwhile, someone evil - the Witch - wants him dead, and--.” He claps his hands together. “--Done. Minus some of the saving-the-world, Harry Potter is  _us_.”  
  
Zayn gives him a weird look. “If you say so. You guys don’t have to hide your magic, though. Well, here you do, but in your world--”  
  
Harry shakes his head slowly. “Didn’t Liam tell you about...?” He waves his hand in a vague shape, but Zayn only frowns. “Oh. That’s a bit awkward.”  
  
“Why?” Zayn asks, urgent. “What didn’t he tell me?”  
  
“It’s just, um.” He swipes his fringe out of his eyes, licking his lips nervously. “Magic is kind of... not allowed?”  
  
Zayn’s stomach twists. “What?”  
  
“The king made the law a long time ago. Like, before Louis was even born. So everyone’s kind of... used to it,” Harry says carefully.  
  
“It’s _illegal_?”  
  
Harry nods. “But it’s not a massive deal. As long as we stay outside the king’s boundaries, we can do whatever.”  
  
“But,” Zayn cuts in, trying to keep his voice calm. “Liam said all this great stuff about magic, how it’s connected to everything and everyone--”  
  
“Of course it is,” Harry says, smiling for a moment. “But the king doesn’t understand that. Doesn’t want to, maybe.” He looks down. “I think he’s a bit scared of it.”  
  
“Liam’s the  _prince_ ,” Zayn growls. “How can he think that about his own son?”  
  
Harry frowns. “Liam stopped being the prince, though. He came and stayed with us.”  
  
“Still. He would’ve grown up with that hanging over his head. With people telling him it’s something bad.” He grits his teeth. “That it’s something to be  _scared of_.”  
  
He clenches his fists and Harry watches him, staring at him openly. He makes a move to touch Zayn’s tense shoulder, but pulls back and drags his hand through his curls instead, looking back at the floor.  
  
“Niall wanted to be a knight,” he mumbles. “When we were younger. He wanted to be fighting monsters, guarding the kingdom, all of that.” He glances up, meeting Zayn’s eyes. “But sorcerers aren’t allowed in the throne room unless they’re getting arrested.  
  
“He was sad about it for a long time, and angry too- not at the king for making the law, but at himself for having magic.” Harry pauses, breaking into a dreamy sort of smile. “Then Louis showed him how to use the wind. Now, he can make gusts sharper than any knight’s sword.” He shrugs, grinning. “And he’s happy.”  
  
Zayn can’t help rolling his eyes a little. “That’s great for him,” he sighs, “but what are you trying to say? That, what, Louis taught Liam how to plant trees or something, and suddenly all his problems were solved?”  
  
Harry shrinks back slightly at his harsh tone. “No, I mean- Liam was never like that. He was never bitter.”  
  
“He left his home behind,” Zayn says, quieter, “and he never once told you he missed it?”  
  
Frowning, Harry shakes his head. “He looked sad sometimes, but... He was never sad about being with us.”  
  
“How do you know?”  
  
“I dunno, it just... it would feel different, I guess?” He licks his lips again. “He’d get kind of wavery, sometimes. That’s when he’d be missing it. But then he’d look at us and smile, and it’d be completely different. Warmer.”  
  
Zayn raises his eyebrows, and Harry smiles nervously. “When Liam’s sad he tries not to let it show, but I can- um. Pick up on it. Sense it, sort of.”  
  
“That’s... really weird.” He smiles. “Can you do that all the time?”  
  
“More or less,” Harry says, grinning back at him. “Like when we were driving yesterday, all around you it was kind of--” He tenses his hands up until they start to shake. “--A bit like that, clenched and annoyed. I was worried that if I tried talking to you, you’d snap and strangle someone.”  
  
Zayn laughs. “Spot on. I’m impressed.”  
  
“Louis says I’m tuned like a harp,” Harry tells him proudly.  
  
“Right.” He watches the dreamy smile spread over Harry’s face again. “In your village, you guys lived together?”  
  
Harry nods. “Louis and Niall and I did. And Liam too, for a bit- until the witch came round, I mean.” He spreads his arms. “Now we’re here, and we’re still all together. Plus you.” He sniffs, letting his hands fall back to his sides. “Liam must like you a lot.”  
  
Zayn can’t help smiling at that. “Yeah, I guess. Listen, speaking of Liam-” He starts to walk back down the hall towards their room. “-there’s some things I need to ask him about, so--”  
  
“Wait,” Harry blurts, reaching out and catching his arm. “Just- one more thing?”  
  
Surprised, Zayn turns back around. “Sure, what is it?”  
  
“Um.” He bites his lip, letting go of Zayn and shoving his hands into his pockets. “Could you tell me about... Snow White?”  
  
Zayn vaguely wonders if this is the start of a sharp decline into not being able to deny these boys anything, and steps back over to Harry. “Alright. Real quick, though, okay?”  
  
Harry beams, nodding enthusiastically, and Zayn takes a deep breath.  
  
“Snow White is basically the most beautiful girl ever, and her stepmother - the Queen - wants to kill her so  _she’ll_  be the most beautiful. She sends a guy to cut Snow White’s heart out of her chest, but he can’t bring himself to do it, so he tells her to run away into the forest. She finds this house and these seven dwarves but I never remember their names, so we’re gonna skip that part.  
  
“The point is, the Queen finds out that Snow White got away, so she goes after her herself, disguised as an old woman. She tricks Snow White into eating a poison apple - we talked about this part earlier - and she’s put into a deep sleep. The dwarves band together and kill the stepmother, but Snow White is left asleep until a prince comes along and kisses her, and she wakes up.”  
  
Harry makes a face. “I’m pretty sure a kiss can’t break an enchantment like that.”  
  
“It’s a fairytale. They don’t always make a lot of sense.” Zayn shrugs. “There’s a different one, Sleeping Beauty, where another princess gets woken up by a kiss, but it specifically has to be-” He raises his hands to make air quotes. “-’True Love’s Kiss’.”  
  
“What’s that?”  
  
“Terribly cliche, is what it is,” He snorts. “It’s like, some magical power that people in love have. And they use it to save each other from deep sleeps. Guarantees a Happy Ending, etcetera.”  
  
Harry stares at him, eyes wide with wonder. “Definitely sounds magical.”  
  
“Right, well,” Zayn sighs, starting back to their room again. “Sleeping Beauty also has people turning into dragons, so get back to me when you see that happening in present day England.”  
  
“I will,” Harry declares, and follows him.  
  
\--  
  
Niall tackles Harry as soon as they step in the door, complaining loudly that Harry didn’t bring him anything from the snack machine. It escalates into them rolling across the floor, slapping at each other, and when he tries to break them apart, Liam gets dragged in as well.  
  
“I didn’t even _do_  anything,” he yells, putting his arms up to protect his head as Niall’s foot shoots out toward him. “Zayn, help me!”  
  
And Zayn tries to pull him to his feet, but gets tugged down instead, and has to wrestle Harry off his leg before he can grab Liam and crawl away to safety.  
  
“Should we, um, break them up?” Zayn asks, breathing heavily as he watches Harry and Niall continue their brawl.  
  
“No, they’ll be fine,” Liam says, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “They never actually hurt each other, they just--”  
  
He’s cut off by a loud smack and Harry gives a muffled yell, and before either of them can register what’s just happened Louis is stepping in, pulling Harry off of Niall and sitting him on the edge of the bed. He has his hands clamped over his nose and mouth, and Zayn can see blood seeping in between his fingers.  
  
Liam grabs Zayn’s arm and squeezes. “What happened?” he asks Niall, who’s still lying on the floor.  
  
“Dunno,” he says, propping himself up on his elbows. “Caught him in the nose, I think.”  
  
“Let me see,” Louis says gently, pawing at Harry’s hands. He relents after a moment and uncovers his face, and Zayn winces. The blood from his nose is smeared over Harry’s upper lip, and still running.  
  
Louis looks at him carefully, turning his head this way and that. “It’s not broken,” he announces. Zayn lets out the breath he hadn’t realised he was holding, and Liam glances at him with a relieved smile. “You’ve got a mean swing, Niall.”  
  
“Sorry, mate,” Niall laughs, and Harry sticks his tongue out at him.  
  
“Still, it’s quite messy. Come on, Hazza,” Louis chirps, standing up and pulling Harry with him. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” The two of them disappear into the small bathroom and close the door.  
  
The room is silent for a few moments- either they’re being very quiet, Zayn figures, or Louis has put up another sound barrier.  
  
“So,” he starts, “is this all normal?”  
  
Liam shrugs. “Usually playfighting doesn’t end up quite so bloody, but yeah, mostly. We’re all a bit...”  
  
“Touchy-feely,” Niall supplies.  
  
“Especially those two?” Zayn asks, nodding towards the door.  
  
“Louis just wants to make sure he’s safe,” Liam sighs, nudging his shoulder. “From wayward fists and all that.”  
  
Zayn laughs. “If the Witch shows up,” he says, getting to his feet, “I vote we just throw Niall at her.”  
  
Niall, stretching out on the floor, flips him off.  
  
“I don’t think it’ll be quite that easy,” Liam tells him. “We’ve been running instead of standing to fight, so we don’t have any idea what she’s capable of.”  
  
Zayn smirks, turning around to help him up. “She can’t be _that_  great. There’s been no sign of her since we left the flat. If she really was such a big deal, I think she’d be making a bit more of an effort.”  
  
“Yeah, but we’re not just driving around out in the open,” Liam says, brushing himself off. “Louis has protection spells up day and night.”  
  
Niall makes a noise of agreement. “Also, Louis was the one who figured we had a better chance running than fighting.”  
  
Zayn rolls his eyes. “Alright, the resident All-Powerful Wizard thinks we’re screwed. Whatever. We’re still gonna have to face her eventually, aren’t we?” He glances back and forth between the two of them, and Liam nods reluctantly. “So we roll with what we’ve got. Which is three wizards against one witch.”  
  
“She isn’t just gonna use spells, though,” Niall says. “She ate a guy’s heart out of his chest this one time.”  
  
Zayn grimaces, turning to Liam. “I don’t suppose you could recover from anything like that, could you?”  
  
“Don’t think so, no.”  
  
“Right.” He sighs, puts his hands on his hips. “How do we get rid of her, then? Spill water on her?"  
  
There’s a moment of silence, during which Niall sits up and looks at Zayn with his eyebrows raised. “Who the fuck taught you this shit?”  
  
“What? It’s from The Wizard Of--”  
  
“On the topic of losing a vital organ,” Louis cuts in, choosing that exact moment to swing the bathroom door open dramatically and step out. Harry follows just behind, his face thankfully no longer covered in blood (but looking a bit flushed, Zayn notices, and the dreamy-smile is back). “One would need to begin healing  _while_  said organ was being torn away. And even if Liam could manage that - because it’s terribly difficult, mind you - it wouldn’t work in this case.  
  
“Magic is centered at your heart, see, so if you lose that you’re kind of hooped. Unfortunately, Liam’s heart is exactly what we’re expecting the Witch to go for.” He crosses his arms. “Stealing magic from another sorcerer is dark, dark stuff, so it’s hardly surprising that the ritual is something so gruesome.”  
  
He pauses, glancing round at the others, who‘re all looking a bit dumbfounded. “Sorry, I was a bit late jumping into that conversation. What’re we talking about now?”  
  
“Wait, so,” Zayn starts, turning to Niall. “You weren’t joking? She actually eats people’s hearts?”  
  
Niall nods slowly. “Yeah mate. She’s batshit, what were you expecting?” He lays back down on the floor. “And what’s this about spilling water on her? It’s not like she’ll drown from a few splashes.”  
  
Nodding sagely, Harry holds up a hand. “It's from Harry Potter," he explains, smug, and Louis looks so proud that Zayn can’t quite bring himself to correct him.  
  
Harry yawns loudly before anyone can say anything else, and Louis ushers him over to the bed, effectively breaking their circle. Niall follows suit, crawling over to the cushioned armchair in the corner of the room, leaving Liam and Zayn to shuffle their feet.  
  
“Time for bed, then?”  
  
“Yeah,” Zayn sighs. He glances at Harry, already curled up under the covers. “I think we all need a time-out, it’s getting a bit too exciting in here.”  
  
\--  
  
Liam waits until the room is silent before he rolls over and pokes Zayn in the side.  
  
“Hey,” he murmurs as Zayn turns to face him. “You still awake?”  
  
“Even if I hadn’t been, I definitely would be after  _that_.” Zayn makes a jab for his ribs in retaliation.  
  
Liam breathes a laugh, knocking his hand away. “If you want to sleep, it’s fine. Everything’s just so crazy during the day, and then at night...” He can’t help breaking into a smile. “It’s like it’s just us, having a bit of a wind-down. Sort of therapeutic.”  
  
“For me or you?”  
  
“Both, I guess? I don’t know, it might be just me who--”  
  
“No, I get it,” Zayn says, smirking at him. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only sane man in a room full of weirdos.”  
  
Liam rolls his eyes playfully. “I’m pretty sure I classify as a weirdo in this case.”  
  
Zayn shrugs. “Yeah, but I already live with you. I’ve built up an immunity. These other three, on the other hand...”  
  
“I wish I could tell you that they aren’t always like this, but-” An apologetic smile spreads across his face. “They’re pretty much always like this.”  
  
Uttering a long-suffering sigh, Zayn turns onto his back and throws an arm over his eyes. “I suppose I’ll survive. I can’t imagine how you dealt with them before coming over here.”  
  
“A lot like you’re dealing now, actually,” Liam laughs. “They’d be going off about this spell or that charm, and I’d just kind of nod along with them. And Louis would just  _seethe_ every time I brought up the castle or anything like that- he used to hate talking about everything to do with the king.”  
  
“Why, though?” He figures he shouldn’t bring up the anti-magic law, not until he knew why Liam hadn’t told him about it.  
  
“He doesn’t think it’s fair for the royal family to say they’re protecting the kingdom when so many people within it are impoverished,” Liam explains. “And he’s right, it’s crap. He used to take every opportunity to tell me how completely shite he thinks it is.” He smiles a bit at the memory. “I remember when I first got there, I thought Louis was absolutely horrid.  
  
“I showed up in this village, not knowing anyone at all, somehow managed to find room and board- and this guy walks up and asks me if I’m lost. Like, _‘aren’t you a bit far from home?’_  and _‘you sure you’re gonna be okay without a featherbed? Sorry we don’t serve entire boars here mate’_.” He laughs. “We almost came to blows over it, but Harry jumped in and dragged Louis out, bless him.”  
  
Zayn hums. “I’d’ve thought he’d just go along with Louis.”  
  
“Not unless he was asked to, really,” Liam says, shaking his head. “Like, we’d cross paths afterward and Louis would either glare or ignore me entirely, but Harry would always wave. And for Niall, it would depend on the last time he ate.”  
  
They both snicker, and Zayn shifts a bit closer. “How’d you four get to be so close, then? Especially you and Louis, why’d he change his mind about you?”  
  
“No idea,” Liam admits. “But round the time that there were rumours about the Witch approaching the village, he just came up to me and offered to help me out.”  
  
Zayn raises his eyebrows. “I honestly can’t picture that.”  
  
“Don’t be mean,” Liam chides, swatting his arm, but he smiles before continuing. “He asked me what I was planning to do about, y’know, the general situation, but I barely had any idea who the Witch even was. He gave me this look like, ‘are you stupid?’ and then told me to pack up whatever I had, and we just... left.”  
  
“You were okay with that?” Zayn asks, nudging him with his foot. “Seems a bit abrupt.”  
  
“It’s not like I was really leaving anything behind,” he says, shrugging. “Niall had been living there way longer than me, and Harry and Louis even before him. And all three of them dropped everything to go with me to this gate that may or may not lead to a safe place.” He shakes his head, like he still can’t believe it.  
  
“‘M not surprised,” Zayn yawns. “You’ve got great puppy-eyes.” Liam smiles wide, and Zayn gets the familiar feeling of wanting to close the gap between them. Instead, he prods him again. “How long did it take you to find it? The gate, I mean.”  
  
Liam thinks for a moment. “A couple weeks or so, but only because we ran into a goblin.”  
  
“Sounds... safe?”  
  
“It was, actually. Louis handled it.” He closes his eyes briefly, sighing. “Some of the things he can do with magic, I just- I never could’ve even  _dreamed_  any of it. I learned more in those few days than I had in- well, ever.”  
  
Zayn swallows hard. “You think so?”  
  
Liam nods. “Never really had time for learning it. At the castle, I mean.”  
  
“Right.” Suddenly the blankets feel twisted and too warm, and he kicks them off and stands up. He’s halfway across the room before he knows what he’s doing, and Liam sits up, confused.  
  
“Zayn?” he calls, timid. “You alright?”  
  
Zayn stops abruptly, but doesn’t turn around. “Yeah, I’m just- gonna take a shower.”  
  
Even without looking, he can picture Liam’s uneasy expression. “Okay. Sounds like a good idea.” He clears his throat. “I’ll take one when you’re done, yeah?”  
  
Nodding stiffly, Zayn enters the bathroom and shuts the door behind him.  
  
\--  
  
The steaming water pounding over his shoulders doesn’t do much to calm him down. Zayn stands under the hot spray with his head down, letting his hair drip into his eyes. The mirror above the sink is fogged up, but it still feels less stuffy than the other room.  
  
He knows the reason Liam knew so little about magic isn’t because he didn’t have time to practice, but because he wasn’t allowed to. And he knows that Liam is deliberately skipping over that fact.  
  
It hits him, suddenly, how much Liam has been keeping from him.  
  
About his magic it made sense, at least - that was strictly need-to-know information in modern London, and Zayn understood why he hadn’t been told. But Liam being the prince? And magic being illegal? Did he not think Zayn deserved to know?  
  
Bitterness rises in his chest, and he braces his arms on the walls. Why had Liam even let him come along at all, if he was just going to be lied to? If he’d just be playing fifth wheel to a group of sorcerers?  
  
 _Poor, weak, human Zayn,_  he muses darkly.  _What are you doing here?_  
  
He stays under the spray until he feels like he can breathe again, then steps out and towels off. He opens the door as silently as he can, not wanting to wake the other boys and spark an interrogation- but he notices Louis, awake and sitting beside Liam on their bed. Their heads are bent close together, talking quietly, but Zayn manages to catch their words.  
  
“--of trouble sleeping, I think,” Louis is saying, nodding towards his bed where Harry is still curled up. “He’s been tossing and turning.”  
  
“Oh,” Liam mumbles back, sleepily. “I was talking to Zayn for a bit, did we keep him up?”  
  
“No, I mean- Li, you  _know_  how he gets.”  
  
“But nothing’s even going on tonight, Louis. Maybe Harry’s just overtired.”  
  
There’s a pause before Louis continues, hesitant. “You two are  _entirely_  okay?”  
  
“Yeah, of course.” Liam says immediately. “If something was wrong, Zayn would tell me.” He sounds so completely sure, and for a moment, Zayn feels guilty.  
  
But if Liam wasn’t telling him everything, why should he do anything but return the favour?  
  
He waits in the doorway until Louis climbs back into bed beside Harry, then quietly heads back to his own bed, not taking his eyes off the floor. Liam smiles as he approaches and heads off to take a shower himself, and Zayn lays down without a word.  
  
He doesn’t notice until he comes back, towel over one shoulder and damp hair falling into his eyes, that Zayn isn’t facing the centre of the bed, that he will have his back to Liam for the rest of the night.  
  
Liam calls his name softly, and Zayn can picture him reaching out, but the touch never comes. He feels the bed dip when Liam slides silently under the covers, and swallows the sour taste in his mouth.

\--

Louis is staring at him when he wakes up, and had it been anyone other than Louis, Zayn would’ve probably made a much less-dignified sound upon opening his eyes. He’s sitting on the floor just  _watching_  him, and Zayn really hopes he hasn’t been there for long.  
  
“Need to talk to you,” Louis says, casual, like he hadn’t just  _stared_  Zayn out of a sound sleep. He stands up. “Not in here, though. Come on.”  
  
Zayn sits up and looks around, rubbing his eyes. It’s mostly dark outside, the sky just beginning to lighten up. The other boys are still sleeping, which is normal at such an obscene time of the morning, but weird - why would Louis want to talk to only him?  
  
Throwing back the covers, he stands up to stretch, and almost doesn’t hear the soft sigh from behind him. He turns and sees Liam, still asleep, curling towards the warm patch of blankets that he had just left behind. There’s a small crease between his eyebrows even as he settles, and Zayn wonders if he’s dreaming.  
  
He reaches down to brush Liam’s sleep-mussed hair back from his forehead, and it’s only when Liam turns his face into the touch that Zayn remembers his words from the night before. His mouth twists and he pulls away, following Louis out of the hotel room.  
  
\--  
  
They end up on the roof. Zayn’s pretty sure that the door they used should’ve been locked, but he imagines that Louis hasn’t had to use keys for a long, long time. Hands in his pockets, he watches as the other boy takes in the skyscape surrounding them.  
  
“Alright, then,” Louis starts, stretching his arms above his head. “Why are you so upset with Liam?”  
  
Zayn splutters. “I-I’m not, he--”  
  
“Don’t give me that, you two talk louder than you think you do.”  
  
“But you were supposed to be asleep! Why were you listening?”  
  
“Oh, please.” He rolls his eyes. “You think I don’t know you were eavesdropping on me and Liam?”  
  
Face hot, Zayn looks down. “I didn’t mean to.”  
  
“Well, neither did I,” Louis sighs. “I was lying there, minding my own business, and suddenly you two idiots start up a conversation. In the middle of the night, I might add. I was about ready to tell you both to shut it when you got up.” He shakes his head in disbelief. “Thought it’d be fine after that, but then Harry started having an issue, and- here’s the thing, okay.  
  
“If anyone out of the five of us can pick up on hurt feelings, it’s him. And he was reacting to this  _in his sleep_. So, either you tell me what’s happening behind the scenes here, or we’re gonna be up here for a very long time.”  
  
“He’s--” Zayn cuts off, licks his lips and tries again, forcing the words out. “He... doesn’t trust me.”  
  
Louis snorts. “Has he told you that outright?”  
  
“He hasn’t told me  _anything_.” He feels anger bubbling up and doesn’t even try to push it back. “Not about being the prince, not about magic actually being  _illegal_ \- I get that I’m a bit late to the party, but--” Frustrated, he pushes a hand through his hair. “We’ve lived together for almost half a year. He’s my  _best friend_ , and I’ve been finding everything out from you and Harry. Why doesn’t he trust me enough to tell me himself?”  
  
He bites down hard on his lip, stopping any other words - it’s bad enough to think these awful things about Liam, but saying them out loud solidifies them, makes them real and able to hurt. Louis watches him for a moment, then turns away.  
  
“Alright, look,” he says, eyes on the skyline once again. “Let me tell you something about Liam.  
  
“He might’ve been born with magic, but he didn’t grow up with it. Matter of fact, no one had any idea about his having it until very, very recently- not even Liam. The healing type is easy to skip over, so people just thought he was blessed with immunity to disease, or something. And he did too, until he sliced his palm open one day, and father dearest watched as the skin sewed itself up.” He smiles, tight-lipped.  
  
“So, suddenly the crown prince is a sorcerer and, wow, that’s just a bit awkward, isn’t it? There’s been a law against magic for years, a law made by the king himself. Using it within the city walls or even in the lower town is punishable by death, and even if you don’t do any spellwork you can still be banished, or hanged, or worse.” A cloud falls across the rising sun, shrouding the rooftop in darkness again. “And here’s Liam, his own son, doing it right in front of him.”  
  
Eyebrows knitting, Zayn frowns. “Wouldn’t that change his mind? Wouldn’t he see that magic isn’t as bad as he thought?”  
  
Louis laughs bitterly. “You’d think that, yeah. And maybe he did, for a moment. But then he got scared. What if he had been wrong all this time, and condemned hundreds- or _thousands_  of innocent people to death?” He shakes his head. “What would his subjects do if they knew that their beloved king had lied to them?”  
  
“Then make Liam the one exception, it’s his  _son_ \--”  
  
“And what would happen if anyone found out?” Louis interrupts, voice rising. “They could hide him away for the rest of his life, but the castle walls have eyes and ears. Someone would uncover it eventually.” He clenches his fists, but still doesn’t look back at Zayn. "So, what d’you think the knights would do if they found out that the prince had magic? They’ve been trained, all of them, to track and kill sorcerers--”  
  
“But he’s--”  
  
“--and they don’t care whether its the child of a baker or a butcher- or a king.”  
  
The wind picks up and with it comes black sheets of cloud, rolling in and filling the sky above them. Zayn glances at them warily, then back at Louis- his shoulders are set and rigid, but his hands are shaking slightly. There’s deep rumbling from above them, and the entire building rattles with it.  
  
“So he looks at Liam, his flesh and blood, future ruler of the kingdom, and he makes his choice.” Another boom of thunder. “He tells him to leave.”  
  
It’s then that the rain starts, but Zayn barely feels the first small drops hitting his shoulders. “He told me he left the castle on his own, when--”  
  
“He lied.”  
  
“But why wouldn’t he have said anything?” he asks, desperation creeping into his voice. “I could’ve--”  
  
Louis turns towards him and the words die in Zayn’s throat with the force of his glare. “Li doesn’t tell you things because it  _hurts too much_ ,” he spits, and the air crackles. “He got chased out because his dad would rather raise a kingdom than a son. He lost _everything_ , and it’s all because of these cowards and their stupid fucking  _law_.”  
  
His eyes flash, and lightning streaks across the sky. “He hasn’t even had time to mourn, because now the Witch wants to take away the only thing he has left.”  
  
“I want to  _help_ ,” Zayn insists, snapping right back at him. “If he would just--”  
  
All of a sudden Louis is on him, hands fisted in the collar of his shirt. He’s shorter than Zayn, but his grip is iron and his snarl is  _feral_.  
  
“You think that you  _deserve_  to be let in?” he growls. “He doesn’t owe you anything, alright. Li comes from a long line of shitty people but somehow, he turned out better than all of them.”  
  
Overhead the clouds rumble again, but Louis doesn’t even flinch. “Even after everything was taken from him, he was still willing to trust me, okay,  _me_. And I fucking hate everybody.”  
  
The rain is coming down in heavy sheets now, and he shoves Zayn away. “Don’t go behind his back to figure him out - grow a spine and ask him yourself.”  
  
He turns abruptly and starts for the stairwell, and Zayn follows him after a moment, resigned. As they reach the door Louis stumbles, foot catching on the uneven ground. On reflex, Zayn grabs his shoulder to steady him before he can face-plant.  
  
Louis glares half-heartedly at him. “M’ fine,” he grunts, but he keeps a hand on Zayn’s arm the entire way down the stairs. He looks tired, Zayn realises. The dark bruises under his eyes make him wonder if Louis slept at all.  
  
And- do wizards trip over their own feet?  
  
The other three boys are awake when they get back to the room, watching the rain hit the wide window. Harry immediately bounds over to them as they close the door, towels at the ready.  
  
“Morning,” Louis greets, as Harry wraps one round his shoulders. “What’re you all doing awake?”  
  
“The storm’s too loud to sleep through,” Niall sighs, and Liam pats his arm comfortingly.  
  
Louis nods. “It’s worse when you’re out there in it. Me and Zayn, here-” He nudges Zayn’s shoulder with his own. “We were up watching the sunrise, and it just came out of nowhere.”  
  
Harry bites his lip. “Isn’t it...  _weird_ , though? Like, the weather’s been completely fine this whole time, until just now--”  
  
“Quite strange, yeah,” Louis says over him, blank-faced, and looks around at the other boys. “We might as well get going, if everyone’s up. Fifteen minutes?” He doesn’t wait for a response, just crosses the room and shuts himself in the bathroom.  
  
Zayn feels Liam’s eyes on him, but doesn’t look up. His throat is too tight to say anything, anyway.  
  
\--  
  
The rain doesn’t let up, and Zayn tries not to watch Liam, his head leant against the window, as he stares out at the foggy scenery. They haven’t spoken since the night before, and Liam’s left the entire length of the middle seat between them- but it’s just as well, Zayn thinks, turning away. He wouldn’t know where to start.  
  
His gaze settles on Harry in the passenger seat and the way he’s twisting his hands in his lap, unable to keep his eyes from flickering over to Louis every few minutes. The two of them haven’t said much either, not since they settled into their seats and Louis had shrugged Harry’s tentative hand off his shoulder -  _“I told you, I’m fine.”_  - but had gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles.  
  
It’s silent but for the drops hitting the roof, the wipers on the windshield sliding back and forth, and Niall’s soft snores from the very back seat, but it’s not quite calming. The air feels like it’s being pulled taut, tighter and tighter until it’ll be ready to snap.  
  
He wonders for a moment if Liam feels it too, before quickly averting his gaze again.  
  
Zayn’s eyes find Louis just as he begins to drum his fingers on the wheel. His face looks relaxed enough, except for the absence of his signature smirk, but the rest of his body seems to be buzzing, twitching- with energy or anxiety, Zayn can’t tell.  
  
Harry notices, of course, and he watches Louis worriedly, wincing every time his body jerks. “Lou?” he says, timid, reaching out to him carefully. “We can take a break, if you want, get off the road for a bit--”  
  
“No,” Louis snaps, and Harry pulls back. “We keep going. If we stop here, we’re too out in the open.”  
  
Liam leans forward, eyebrows knit. “Haven’t we sort of been out in the open this entire time?”  
  
“It’s better if we’re moving.”  
  
“I know it’s harder to keep barriers around a moving target,” he presses. “We can spare like, fifteen minutes--”  
  
“--For me to what, get my breath back?” Louis cuts him off sharply. “That’s more than enough time for someone to attack us. I can’t risk it, the spell is getting weaker every day, ever since we left London.” He flexes his fingers on the steering wheel. “I just- I need to focus, is all.”  
  
Harry still hasn’t looked away from him. “Don’t strain yourself,” he murmurs, but Louis ignores him.  
  
“I can feel it slipping even now. It’s not strong enough.” His voice rises, sounding desperate. “I can do this, I just need to push harder, I  _need_  to--”  
  
“--Guys?” The quaver in Niall’s voice makes everyone turn to look.  
  
The window nearest to him has a deep crack running through it, almost from corner to corner. He stares back at them, eyes fearful. “Can we stop?”  
  
Without a word, Louis jerks the wheel and the van lurches onto the shoulder. He’s out of the vehicle before the engine has fully shut off, with Harry close behind as he walks away from them. Zayn follows Liam and Niall out, prepared to go after Louis, but Niall catches his arm.  
  
“Just wait,” he says, and gestures up the road. “Haz’ll bring him back.”  
  
The three of them watch as Harry jogs to catch up to Louis. He touches his shoulder but Louis twists away, and it’s not until Harry grabs one of his hands with both of his own that he stops and turns to face him. Zayn can’t hear what Harry says, or what Louis snarls back at him- but he sees the way that Harry wraps his arms around Louis with no hesitation and pulls him in, and how Louis crumples the tiniest bit before he buries his face in Harry’s neck.  
  
Zayn glances away, feeling like he’s intruding slightly, and his gaze lands on Liam. He still hasn’t spoken to him all morning, and maybe Zayn should think of something to say- Except Liam turns away from the two boys as well, and a split second after their eyes lock they both look at the ground until Harry returns, with his arm around a very-tired-looking Louis.  
  
“There’s a town not that far from here,” Harry says quietly, rubbing Louis’ shoulder. “We’ll find a hotel and start out again tomorrow.”  
  
There’s a general noise of agreement made, and as much as Zayn wants to know why Louis only needed Harry, he doesn’t ask.  
  
Harry climbs into the driver’s seat and starts the van back up, but keeps one hand covering Louis’ as he curls up on the passenger side, eyes closed. Niall sits himself between Zayn and Liam, which Zayn is both grateful for and a bit annoyed about, but Niall just leans his head on Liam’s shoulder and stares worriedly at Louis, and Zayn can’t really find it in himself to be angry with him.  
  
\--  
  
Louis finds them two separate rooms, shutting himself in one and leaving the rest of the boys to sit together in the other. It’s strange not having him around, Zayn realises, even for just a short while- the room is uncomfortably quiet without him providing snarky commentary and telling them where to go next.  
  
He figures, as he looks at the boys on the bed across from him, that their two wizards-in-training probably feel it more than he does - what with how Harry is curled up facing the wall, and the way Niall has latched onto Liam’s arm. Zayn wonders if Louis, on the other side of the wall, can feel how tightly they’re wound.  
  
It’s still and silent for a long time, and he jumps a bit when Liam breaks both with a sharp breath.  
  
“Ouch.” He nudges Niall’s shoulder. “Not so tight, Nialler, you’ll cut off circulation.”  
  
Niall glances down at his hands gripping Liam’s wrist. “Sorry,” he mumbles, letting go and flexing his fingers. “It’s just. Nerves, you know?” Liam nods, putting his arm around him.  
  
Zayn leans back on his palms. “I would suggest going for a walk or something, but-” he looks over his shoulder at the rain that’s still falling against the window. “There’s also the freak storm factor to consider.”  
  
Liam hums. “You’d think it would’ve stopped by now.”  
  
Behind him, Harry sits up with a frown. “That’s just it, though,” he says. “It’s not just some weird storm. I didn’t feel it before, but it’s-” He pauses, glances at the wall, lowers his voice. “It’s Louis.”  
  
Zayn shakes his head slowly. “You’ve lost me already.” Liam opens his mouth to explain but hesitates, and Harry talks over him.  
  
“You know when you’re angry and you just want to lash out and- and break something?” Zayn nods carefully. “Well, magic kind of does that for you. If you’re not in control of it.”  
  
“So, the storm is like, Lou letting off some steam,” Niall jumps in. “Stress and frustration and that.”  
  
Zayn mulls it over. “But what’s he got to be frustrated about?” Surely he hadn’t pissed Louis off  _that_  much? “I mean, I know we aren’t anywhere near a good time, but that much pent-up anger...”  
  
Harry looks down, picking at the edge of the bedsheet. After a moment, Liam answers quietly, not quite meeting Zayn’s eyes. “You heard him earlier. The spell is slipping.”  
  
“ _What_  spell?” Zayn asks, edging on exasperated.  
  
Liam swallows. “I told you yesterday, Lou’s got - he’s had protection magic up since before we left. But... now it’s fading. He’s pushing himself as hard as he can, and it’s still getting worse.”  
  
“But he’s the--”  
  
“--The strongest, yeah.” Niall leans into Liam’s side. “We don’t get it either.”  
  
“So he’s not angry because of us or something that’s happened,” Liam continues, rubbing Niall’s shoulder. “He’s more... angry with himself. For not being able to fix it.”  
  
The windows rattle and Zayn glances back again, watches the rain pound against the glass. The storm is still going, and his stomach twists with the thought of how long it’s been on. “Is Louis okay now, though?” he asks, hoping he doesn’t sound as worried as he feels. “We stopped so he could rest, right? Wind down?”  
  
“He hasn’t made any noise in more than an hour,” Niall points out, peering around Liam at the wall dividing their rooms. “Maybe he’s taking a nap.”  
  
Harry shakes his head. “He hasn’t slept since we picked up Liam and Zayn,” he says, drawing his knees up to his chest. “He’s worried that he’ll lose the spell completely if he falls asleep. He thinks I haven’t noticed, but...” He trails off, and Zayn is pretty sure he’s never seen him look so miserable. “I should’ve said something.”  
  
Liam twists around to face him, shaking his head. “This isn’t your fault,” he tells him, and Harry smiles, albeit a little sadly.  
  
Of course it would be Liam, Zayn thinks, watching him comfort the other two. Of course he’s the one keeping them together. After all, the only thing the three boys have right now - aside from an evil witch after them, and one member missing - is each other. He wonders how Louis and his trainees got on by themselves while Liam was living in the flat with him.  
  
He looks away, then - remembering the flat makes his chest hurt. Liam had smiled a lot more before all this roadtrip stuff happened, and there hadn’t been any  _magic_  getting between them.  
  
Not that magic wasn’t amazing or the coolest thing Zayn had ever seen (because it definitely, definitely was), but... It was easier to look Liam in the eyes before, when he thought they weren’t keeping any secrets.  
  
He’s still the most beautiful person Zayn’s ever met, he still makes his heart ache with just a look - but the chances of Liam maybe, possibly, minutely feeling the same seem to be dwindling with every awkward meeting of eyes, every word he bites back, every span of space between them.  
  
Niall looks up suddenly, and the others turn to him, startled.  
  
“Alright, Niall?” Liam starts, squeezing his shoulder.  
  
He nods slowly, looking a bit confused. “I think... I think the rain is stopping.”  
  
Zayn glances doubtfully out the window, but Niall continues. “Not like, completely, but it’s... easing off?” He turns to Harry. “Can you feel anything?”  
  
Zayn speaks up before he can reply. “But if the storm is fading, then does that mean Louis is--”  
  
There’s a faint knocking and he cuts off. The four of them pause, staring at the room’s door and holding their breath, before they all stand up at once. Harry jumps off the bed and scrambles over to the door, and with only a split second of hesitation, pulls it open.  
  
It’s Louis, of course, looking tired and worn, but he smiles easily as soon as he sees Harry.  
  
“Hi.”  
  
Zayn can’t see Harry’s face, but he can imagine the way it lights up. With a noise somewhere between a whine and a sob, he throws his arms around Louis’ neck and hugs him tightly. Louis breathes a laugh, stumbling a bit with the force of it, and Niall sniffles, rushing over and tucking himself against his side. Figuring their death-grip must hurt, Zayn winces, but Louis puts his arms around both of them, and nods at him and Liam over Harry’s shoulder.  
  
They let go eventually, grinning wide, and Liam clears his throat. “Are you feeling better?” he asks, and Louis shrugs noncommittally.  
  
“More or less. I’m gonna refrain from operating any heavy machinery for a bit.” Zayn feels himself smiling along with the others - it really is nice to have Louis back.  
  
“I was wondering, though,” he continues, putting his hands in his pockets. “D’you - Harry and Niall, d’you want to come outside with me?” He speaks quickly, like he’s afraid they’ll say no. “There’s a- a spell I want to show you, but I’d rather not run the risk of bringing the ceiling down, so. I figured, now that the storm’s calming down a bit, we could...”  
  
He trails off, seeing Harry and Niall already slipping their shoes on, and breaks into a relieved smile. “Alright then, let’s go. It’s quite cool magic, this is, lots of yelling and throwing things without using your hands. If you can get it, we’ll try with someone running at you, and-” He ruffles Niall’s hair. “-we might even have time to fix that window in the car, yeah?” Niall laughs, and the three of them start to file out.  
  
“Have fun,” Liam calls after them, and Zayn pauses, doing a quick headcount, and-- wait.  
  
He and Liam are going to be left alone in the room. On purpose.  
  
Making a choked sort of noise, he lunges forwards into the hall and grabs Louis’ arm. “What are you  _doing_?” he whispers desperately. Louis just grins, and winks at him.  
  
“Don’t cock it up,” he says cheerfully, then claps Zayn on the shoulder and follows Harry and Niall down the hall.  
  
Zayn once again resolves to murder Louis.  
  
Liam is giving him a strange look when he steps back inside, and he tries his best to give him a reassuring smile. He sits back down on the bed and Liam follows suit, sitting across from him on the other bed and turning to face him.  
  
The space between them seems pronounced, somehow. Zayn swallows hard.  
  
“Do you think they’ll be okay?” Liam asks tentatively, nodding towards the door. “Harry and Niall, I mean.”  
  
Zayn makes himself focus, raises an eyebrow. “You don’t think Louis would--”  
  
“No, no, no. I know Louis would never hurt them,” Liam says quickly. “I just meant, like- they’ve been so worried about him. Harry looked literally sick with it...” He drops his gaze to the floor. “I just hope they don’t push themselves too hard, trying to show Louis that they’re okay, too.”  
  
Zayn watches him twist his hands in his lap. If they were closer, he would pull Liam in with an arm around his shoulders, and poke his cheeks until he smiled.  
  
Instead, he clenches his fingers in the bedsheets. “I think they’d do it anyway, just to impress him,” he says, trying to sound light. Liam snickers.  
  
“Good point.” He looks up and smiles at Zayn, then shrugs. “Maybe I’d get it if I had the same magic they do.”  
  
“Maybe, yeah.” Zayn glances away. His chest feels tight when he thinks of Liam’s magic, like something is pushing to get out. It seems like so long ago that he had watched it flow out of Liam’s palms - the same way he’s sure it had just before the king decided to banish him.  
  
He grips the covers more tightly, feeling bitterness climbing up his throat. Was there anything  _good_  in Liam’s life that he actually got to keep? And why did it feel like Zayn was the only one upset about it?  
  
“Zayn?” Liam’s voice snaps him back to attention. The other boy is giving him the same weird look as before, head cocked to one side. “You alright?”  
  
 _Not really_ , Zayn thinks.  
  
“You,” he says, then stops.  
  
Liam smiles, confused. “Me.”  
  
And before he can clench his jaw, the words spill over his lips.  
  
“Magic is illegal.”  
  
Liam pales visibly. “I- Oh.” He pauses, licks his lips. “Who told--”  
  
“Doesn’t matter.” Zayn swallows again.  _But you didn’t_.  
  
He rubs the back of his neck, not meeting Zayn’s eyes. “I didn’t want you to worry about me,” he explains, mumbling. “It’s not even that big of a deal.”  
  
“It kind of is,” Zayn says, feeling a bit sick. “You could’ve gotten killed, right? And you had to leave everything behind- don’t you see the problem here?” He pauses, waiting for Liam to say something, then continues, quieter. “Do you- do you ever wish you didn’t have magic?”  
  
Liam glances up at that, blinking at him. “Of course not.”  
  
“But your dad-  _the king_ \--”  
  
“Yeah, okay, he had this thing with magic being the worst, but...” He looks down at his hands, flexes his fingers. “You grow up with something like this inside you, running through your veins, dancing under your skin... No matter how many people tell you it’s bad, or it’s wrong -” His mouth curves into a slow smile. “- you can’t quite bring yourself to believe them.”  
  
Zayn’s stomach twists. “But if you didn’t have it, you wouldn’t have to deal with any of this.” The smile slides off Liam’s face, and Zayn blatantly ignores the part of himself that feels bad. “You wouldn’t be hiding or running for your life all the time, you wouldn’t have gotten thrown out--”  
  
“Zayn--”  
  
“--You’d still have your  _entire life_.” He gets to his feet, unable to sit still any longer. “Why are you so  _okay_  with this? Aren’t you angry?”  
  
Standing up as well, Liam reaches out to him. “I’m not, I’m--”  
  
Zayn growls and slaps his hand away, glaring at him. “I’m so  _sick_  of you lying to me!”  
  
It sounds harsher out loud than he expected it to, and his anger begins to ebb as he watches Liam’s expression flit from stunned to bitter and sharp.  
  
“Alright, fine,” he spits. “You know what? Yeah, it sucks. This is literally the worst position I have ever been in. But if not for magic and all the shit that came with it, I wouldn’t have even been able to _imagine_  all that I was missing.”  
  
Zayn opens his mouth to say something - he’s not sure what, he just wants Liam’s snarl to disappear - but Liam cuts across him, harsh. “I wouldn’t have Louis, or Niall or Harry. I never would’ve come through the gate, I never would’ve been here at all. Not this room, not London, not the flat.” On the last word his voice loses its edge.  
  
“I- I wouldn’t have met  _you_ , okay? And that’s something I’ll never regret, no matter how bad things are.”  
  
He doesn’t look away from Zayn, almost like he’s daring him to say something, or laugh. Zayn, though, just stares. How could he, the guy with no magical ability or knowledge whatsoever, the  _human_ , be significant enough to cancel out everything that’s gone wrong?  
  
He gapes for a while longer until Liam huffs and drops his gaze, cheeks turning red.  
  
“No, you know what, I’ll just--” He starts forward, shoving past Zayn and heading for the door. It’s then that Zayn unfreezes and spins around, grabbing Liam’s arm and pulling him back.  
  
He doesn’t quite know what he’s doing until Liam tries to jerk away, and Zayn wraps both arms around his shoulders, holding him there. It takes a few moments for Liam to stop his feeble struggles and deflate, calming down and relaxing into the hug. He lets out a slow sigh and carefully slides his hands around Zayn’s waist. They stay quiet for a while, breathing each other in, and Zayn closes his eyes.  
  
“Why do you put up with me?” he mumbles into Liam’s shoulder. “I can’t magick hotel rooms out of nowhere, I can’t fight off dragons... Why’d you even let me come along?”  
  
Liam laughs breathily, but doesn’t tug himself away. “I wanted you to come with me,” he admits. “I would’ve missed you too much.”  
  
Zayn does pull back at that, and stares at Liam, watching his eyes. They’re chest to chest, after all, and Zayn’s fingers curl into the collar of Liam’s shirt. His knowledge of rom-coms is telling him that now, right now, is when he should lean in--  
  
The door crashes open and they jump apart, several feet of space between them as Harry and Niall rush into the room, laughing and yelling. Louis, following behind them, looks tired but happy. He shuts the door and turns to Zayn with his eyebrows raised.  _Well?_  
  
Zayn tries to glare back at him, but he can feel the blush on his face giving him away. Louis nods, smiling knowingly, and Zayn ignores him, glancing at Liam instead - but Liam is already looking at him, and they both blink before grinning sheepishly at each other.  
  
Before either of them can say anything, Niall insists very loudly that he and Harry give them a full rundown of their practice, and drags them over to the couch on the far side of the room.  
  
\--  
  
Liam is very good at listening, asking questions and nodding in all the right places.  
  
Zayn isn’t.  
  
The problem is that Niall talks with his hands, and is rather flaily-y guy to sit beside - so Liam, to avoid getting hit in the face, leans the tiniest bit against Zayn. It makes sense until Niall decides he would rather spread out on the floor, and so rolls off the couch, giving Liam plenty of space to move over -  
  
Except he doesn’t.  
  
Zayn tries to distract himself from the warm press of Liam’s shoulder against his, focusing instead on counting the number of times that Harry, sat at the foot of the armchair Louis settled into, pauses mid-sentence to glance up at Louis for confirmation. Louis smiles and nods every time, and Harry grins right back and continues with the story.  
  
His focus, however, goes out the window when Liam tugs his arm out from between them and swings it over the back of the couch, his hand just barely brushing Zayn’s shoulder. He carries on listening to Niall and Harry, apparently not noticing that he’s just pulled the stereotypical date-at-the-cinema move.  
  
Zayn keeps his hands crossed in his lap and tells himself it’s no big deal. Except it is, sort of, when Liam is so close and his face is  _right there_  and his mouth is curved into a smile and--  
  
And he chooses, right then, to turn and look at Zayn, and there is a long moment where Zayn tells himself that he could definitely kiss Liam.  
  
At that instant, though, Louis twitches like he’s been jabbed in the ribs, nearly hitting Harry when his knees jerk up. Liam turns away from Zayn to shoot him a questioning look.  
  
“Everything okay?” he asks, tense against Zayn’s side. Zayn tears his gaze away from Liam’s mouth and focuses on Louis as well.  
  
“Yeah,” Louis answers slowly, looking just as confused as the other boys. “Sorry, I just- I don’t really- know.” He laughs, tiredly, and stands up, stepping around Harry. “Early bedtime I think, lads.”  
  
\--  
  
Zayn briefly considers, as they all start in on bedtime routines, that Louis hadn’t ordered them all to go to sleep just then-- and yet, it seems, the rest of the evening isn’t quite worth being awake for if Louis isn’t around.  
  
As he goes to brush his teeth he glances at Harry, who’s followed Louis to the door and is shuffling his feet as they whisper what Zayn assumes are goodnights. Harry leans in, though, and says something in Louis’ ear that makes the other boy smile. He pulls away but Louis follows, quickly kissing Harry’s cheek before ruffling his hair gently and stepping out. He closes the door behind him. Harry sighs. Zayn blinks.  
  
He pauses by the bathroom door, watching Harry flop down face-first on one of the beds, and debates going over to him--  
  
But then Niall is clambering on beside Harry and wrapping all four of his limbs around him, and Harry squawks but doesn’t shove him off. Zayn shakes his head as he turns away, but finds himself smiling while he brushes.  
  
He steps out a couple minutes later just as Niall claps twice to put out the lights, and he stumbles his way over to his and Liam’s bed. As his eyes adjust to the dark he sees that Liam is turned away from him, but shifting slightly, still awake. Zayn takes a deep breath and pulls back the covers, sliding in beside him.  
  
He faces Liam’s back, not touching him but wishing he could. It must’ve been like this for Liam the night before, he realises - well, not exactly like this (Liam probably hadn’t wanted to press himself against Zayn and not let go until the sun came up), but Zayn feels a sharp pang of guilt all the same.  
  
Was Liam still upset? Did the hug not properly convey how very sorry Zayn was for fighting with him? Okay, maybe hugs couldn’t send messages like that, but still. He didn’t want to go through the rest of the trip with Liam unhappy.  
  
He reaches out but reconsiders halfway through, letting his hand drop on the sheets between them instead.  
  
“I am sorry, y’know.”  
  
He hears Liam sigh and waits, worrying his bottom lip, as the other boy rolls over to face him. He looks tired but not angry, and Zayn wonders why he didn’t just go right to sleep.  
  
“I’m not mad at you,” Liam says, smiling at him. Zayn’s heart beats a little faster, but he tries to ignore it.  
  
“What’s wrong, then?” he asks, resisting the urge to trail his hand down Liam’s arm. “Something’s bugging you, and if it’s not me then I’m out of ideas.”  
  
Liam shakes his head. “No, everything’s fine. I guess it’s just...” He glances away and curls in a bit more, bringing his knees up, and continues in a very small voice. “It can’t be far now, can it?”  
  
The gate, Zayn remembers.  _No big deal, just the entire point of this roadtrip in the first place._  “Right, yeah,” he says, then pauses, watching Liam carefully. “So are you, like, worried, or...?”  
  
“More nervous than anything,” Liam answers, wrapping his arms around himself. “I think I just want to get there and get it over with.”  
  
“I feel you,” Zayn sighs. “In the past two weeks I have had  _literally_  one night in my own bed. I’m about ready for this to be over.”  
  
Liam laughs quietly, and Zayn can’t help grinning at him. He supposes that, when it  _is_  actually over, he’ll miss the other three and the above-average noise level, probably even the on-the-road banter and the aggressive play-fighting. For now though, he shifts a bit closer and wishes they could do this back at the flat.  
  
Silence settles over them, comfortable, and Zayn feels more at ease than he has in-- days, really. He thanks his lucky stars that Harry and Niall are seemingly asleep, so he and Liam can be almost-alone for a while.  
  
Zayn’s starting to drift off, eyelids feeling a bit too heavy, when Liam tugs on the sleeve of his shirt. He opens his eyes just as the other boy slides over to him, crossing the boundary between their separate sides of the bed.  
  
Quickly pulling away, he props himself up on his elbow and looks confusedly down at Liam. “What are you doing?”  
  
Liam hesitates, curling his fingers in the fabric. “Sorry,” he whispers. “I don’t know, I--” He ducks his head. “Everything’s going really fast and happening really soon and I... I just- need you. Closer.”  
  
Blinking, Zayn takes a second to hope he’s not dreaming. It’d be different in a dream, he decides. Better lighting, for one, and Liam wouldn’t be trembling.  
  
Liam looks about to say something else, but Zayn hushes him gently and moves his pillow over, creating enough space for two people. He lies back down and lifts one arm, beckoning Liam over. “C’mere.”  
  
Liam immediately tucks himself against Zayn, resting one arm over his hip and keeping the other curled between them. Zayn suppresses a shiver as fingertips just barely brush his spine. Carefully, he slides his leg over Liam’s, and wraps his arms loosely around him. His skin feels like it’s sparking wherever Liam presses, and he’s almost sure his heartbeat is loud enough to echo around the room.  
  
“Better?” he manages to ask, and Liam nods, relaxing against him. Zayn closes his eyes and is glad, for a moment, that Louis is not there to smirk at him, and then he’s drifting off again, dreaming of places far away from witches and dragons and hotel rooms.

\--

Zayn wakes up slowly, swimming through semi-consciousness until he is acutely aware of the pressure on his chest. He spends a moment contemplating this - he’s been woken up in stranger ways, after all, but the weight is gentle and relatively comfortable - before cautiously opening his eyes and glancing down.  
  
Liam is pressed against him, one arm slung over his torso and his head pillowed on Zayn’s chest. After a few seconds, Zayn remembers to breathe.  
  
He should move. It was a one-night thing, right? He should nudge Liam away, or wake him up, or something. Carefully, Zayn brings one hand up to rest on Liam’s shoulder, and is ready to shake him -  
  
But Liam is warm and soft and very asleep, and Zayn lets his fingertips trail down Liam’s back and over his hip, pressing lightly there. He holds his breath, but Liam doesn’t stir.  
  
The boys could wake up at any time, Zayn reminds himself, but he doesn’t dare glance over at the other bed. The thought of anyone finding Liam curled against him makes Zayn both nervous and  _pleased_ , in a way - it’s an entirely different sort of intimate, sleeping tangled up with someone. He smiles giddily to himself, doing a happy sort of wiggle.  
  
Then Liam shifts, sighing sleepily, and Zayn freezes.  
  
He nuzzles into Zayn’s shirt slightly, before sitting up and stretching his arms above his head. Zayn watches in admiration, eyes slipping down to the bit of smooth skin visible where the hem of Liam’s shirt is pulled up.  
  
“Oh,” Liam says, voice thick with sleep. Zayn slides his gaze up (much slower than he means to) to meet Liam’s eyes, and watches a faint blush colour his cheeks. “Sorry.”  
  
“S’alright,” Zayn responds, in a dreamy sort of way, and Liam smiles shyly before turning and pulling back the covers to get out of the bed. Already missing the warmth of him, Zayn does the same.  
  
They stand there in silence for a moment, the bed between them, but before Zayn can say anything else a dull thud from the other side of the room makes him turn.  
  
Niall has fallen off the other bed, most likely because of Harry’s current starfish position, and he sighs into the carpet before getting slowly to his feet. He waves tiredly and Liam and Zayn as he stumbles to the bathroom, and Liam is polite enough to wait until the door closes before catching Zayn’s eye and dissolving into giggles.  
  
The three of them are dressed and nearly packed up by the time Harry sits up, yawning and rubbing his eyes. “Morning,” Liam says, smiling at him. “How’d you sleep?”  
  
“Like a rock, I’d reckon,” Niall grumbles from where he’s flopped down on the couch. “This is why I don’t share beds with you weirdos. Woke up twice with his bony elbows in my ribs, and he didn’t even roll over when he kicked me outta bed, the prick.”  
  
Snickering, Zayn glances over at Harry, but the other boy doesn’t seem to have heard either of them. He looks slowly around the room, brow furrowed. “Where’s Louis?”  
  
Zayn shrugs. “He hasn’t come around,” he says. “Liam and I have been awake for a while, we’d have seen him.” Yes, Louis definitely hadn’t been there to see them basically mid-cuddle, thank god.  
  
“He hasn’t come out of his room at  _all_?” Harry asks, kicking his blankets off and standing up.  
  
Liam shakes his head, glancing at Zayn. “Should he have?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Harry sighs, fidgeting. “It’s just, he told me last night that he’d... be here. When I woke up.”  
  
Niall immediately gets to his feet and starts towards the door. “Something’s up, then,” he says, suddenly serious, and beckons for Harry to follow him.  
  
“Maybe he’s just asleep,” Zayn offers.  
  
Liam steps up next to him, biting his lip. “But Harry said yesterday that he hasn’t been sleeping,” he says, and Zayn puts a comforting arm round his shoulders to lead him out into the hall.  
  
They stop outside Louis’ door and Harry swallows thickly before trying to turn the handle. “Locked.”  
  
“We haven’t got his keycard, have we?” Liam asks, sounding a bit frantic, but Harry shakes his head.  
  
Zayn steps forward and raps his knuckles on the door. “Louis?” he calls, but there’s no answer. He knocks again. “Louis, are you in there?”  
  
After a few seconds of silence, he turns back to the others. “We could ask the hotel staff, maybe.”  
  
“Or break it down,” Harry suggests.  
  
“Fuck that,” Niall grunts, shoving them both out of the way and putting one hand over the lock. There’s a faint humming and a loud click, and he turns the door handle easily. The door swings open and in the dim light they can see the bed, topped with a vaguely Louis-shaped pile of blankets.  
  
Harry rushes forward into the room, but the other three hang back, watching through the doorway. The blanket pile rolls over as Harry approaches, revealing a very tired-looking Louis. He smiles at Harry, though, and Harry slides under the covers to lie next to him.  
  
Niall nods, satisfied, and slowly pulls the door closed again. “Give ‘em a few minutes,” he says, starting back to the other room. “Lou’ll explain eventually.”  
  
As they follow Niall back down the hall, Zayn throws his arm back around Liam’s shoulders. “He was definitely asleep just now.”  
  
Liam laughs, winding his hand around Zayn’s waist. “Yeah. How does it feel to be right for once?”  
  
He squeezes, just a little, and Zayn can’t help the grin that spreads over his face.  
  
“Like everything is right in the world,” he says, and tugs Liam into the room.  
  
\--  
  
Harry comes back with a sleep-mussed Louis in tow, and the others breathe a collective sigh of relief. The two of them hadn’t even been that long, Zayn thinks, but it still feels like a weight off his shoulders. After rubbing his eyes, Louis looks around at the other three boys with a tired smile.  
  
“The good news is,” he says, voice scratchy, “the spell is back up.”  
  
“How?” Zayn asks, batting Niall’s happy flailing hands away from his face. “Yesterday it was falling to pieces, what happened?”  
  
Louis shrugs, looking about as puzzled as Zayn feels. “I’m not sure. There was something last night, I think. Something changed.”  
  
“It was when we were in here, before bed,” Harry says, not looking away from Louis. “After we came in--”  
  
“Let  _me_ , Hazza,” Louis interrupts loudly. “We’ll be here half the morning if you tell it.” Harry grins, though, and Louis tugs playfully on his curls before continuing.  
  
“After we came in from doing spellwork outside, the 5 of us were all sat in here, listening to the absolutely thrilling recount told by Harry and Niall. It was then that something felt different. Caught me off-guard, a bit.” He glances at Harry again. “Pretty sure I nearly kicked you in the head.”  
  
“S’fine,” Harry says, still smiling.  
  
“So we all went to bed, right, and I’m sitting awake trying to feel for more of it, trying to figure out what changed, and suddenly there was this - this--” He presses his hands over his eyes, struggling to find the right words. “It was like a - like a click, like something suddenly fit together. And the spell came back right then, strong as it should’ve been the entire way.”  
  
Liam hums. “But what caused it? None of us were up doing magic at that time, I’m not sure if any of us were even awake.” He looks at Zayn for a moment. “You and me might’ve been, but we weren’t--”  
  
“Not magic or anything, no,” Zayn says quickly, feeling his cheeks heat up. “We were just--”  
  
“Talking.”  
  
“Quietly.”  
  
“And then asleep.”  
  
“Exactly that.”  
  
Niall gives them a strange look. Louis shrugs again, unfazed. “No idea. Something shifted, the balance came back, and... I fell asleep.” He coughs. “As you might’ve noticed.” There’s a general noise of agreement around the room. Louis runs a hand through his hair, letting out a long breath. “It was the relief, I guess. Didn’t feel like my throat was closing anymore. I tried to rest my eyes for two seconds, woke up hours later to you lot crowding my door.”  
  
“We thought you were dead,” Niall cries.  
  
“Niall thought you were dead,” Zayn says. “How did the spell keep working while you were asleep, though? I thought you had to be awake to cast it.”  
  
Louis shakes his head. “It held on it’s own. Not too sure what happened there, either.” He pauses momentarily, then claps his hands together, making the other boys jump slightly. “My point is, I guess I need a better alarm clock but it isn’t actually a  _massive_  deal because--”  
  
“--Because we’re so close to the gate,” Liam finishes, a slight waver in his voice.  
  
Nodding, Louis crosses his arms. “If the Witch is going to find us, she’s going to find us now - regardless of protection. She’s here somewhere, and she knows we are, too.” He looks around at each of the other four boys in turn, and settles his gaze on Zayn. “But, if she wants Liam, she’ll have to go through me.”  
  
“And me,” Harry and Niall chime in at the same time.  
  
“We’ll reach the gate within the day,” Louis announces. “Get your things, we’ll set off in ten.”  
  
Liam stares at them in awe, like he still can’t believe anyone would do so much for him. Zayn touches his hand where it hangs at his side, pressing their fingers together. When Liam glances at him, he smiles reassuringly.  
  
 _And me._  
  
\--  
  
The drive is a quiet one, and Liam sits right next to Zayn with Niall on his other side, the three of them crowded close. Harry, in the passenger seat, has one hand over Louis’ on his armrest, and Louis squeezes his fingers every so often. The back seat that Niall usually sprawls out on has disappeared, and Zayn is grateful - the close-ness is what they all need right now, as anxiety creeps up on them.  
  
At one point, part way down a tree-lined road with no signs marking it, Harry and Niall both sit up straight in their seats as if they’ve been shocked. Liam immediately wraps an arm around Niall, who shivers and presses against him.  
  
Harry clamps his fingers around Louis’ wrist. “Did you feel that?”.  
  
Louis nods, keeping his eyes on the road. “The gate,” he explains. “It’s still open, remember. A bit of home is leaking through, I think. You’re just getting whiffs of it.”  
  
Liam swallows hard, and Zayn watches as he lets go of Niall to twist his fingers in his lap. Without thinking, he grabs one of Liam’s hands and threads their fingers together. The other boy freezes and looks up.  
  
“Relax, Li,” Zayn murmurs, placing their joined hands on his thigh. “It’s gonna be fine.”  
  
He’s not so sure, though, even when Liam takes a deep breath and leans on him a bit more - there’s something building as they get deeper and deeper into the trees. The rain and thunder passed over them the day before, but Zayn wonders if they might be heading straight into another storm.  
  
\--  
  
The last leg of their trek is through the dense forest, so Louis leads the other four into the trees on foot. Snapping twigs and rustling leaves fill in the silence when they’re too tense for speaking, but Liam keeps a death grip on Zayn’s hand as they wind their way through the woods. Zayn doesn’t need him to say anything else.  
  
There’s a hum in the air, a slight but very apparent _something_  that Zayn guesses has a lot to do with the draft let in by half-open trans-dimensional doorways. It’s unnerving that he can feel it, though - he thought it would be limited to the other boys and their heightened senses, but with each step his skin buzzes a little more.  
  
“It’s here,” Louis says suddenly, excitement evident in his voice. He picks up his pace and the others start after him. “It’s just through these trees - can you feel that? Same as when we left - just here, lads, there we are, and--”  
  
The five of them stumble into a clearing, Zayn taking a moment longer than the others to grasp what exactly he’s looking at.  
  
The gate is an [empty archway](http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fs3-ec.buzzfed.com%2Fstatic%2Fenhanced%2Fterminal05%2F2012%2F4%2F24%2F16%2Fenhanced-buzz-7247-1335300288-1.jpg&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNE64rZJY-LLYSMs7kOK61--Sw6Vpg), formed by two thick trees bent towards each other and meeting in the middle. Their branches are tangled like fingers, clasped hands unwilling to let go. The hum is nearly audible now, and Zayn can feel it deep in his chest. He glances at Liam, smiling at his awestruck expression before Louis speaks up again.  
  
“Alright, enough gawking, let’s get on with it.” He nudges Niall and Harry forward and waves Liam over. “I’ll open the door a bit wider and then we’re home free.”  
  
“Wait, I thought we came here to close it,” Zayn says, eyebrows knitting. “Why keep it open?”  
  
The Witch might already have an army of creatures with her, so surely Louis didn’t want to let anything else through? But why else would he open the gate - unless he wanted to let something from _this_  side go over--  
  
Liam glances away, and Zayn feels his breath catch in his throat.  
  
“Oh,” says Harry, very, very quietly, and everyone falls silent as Zayn lets his hand slip out of Liam’s.  
  
“You’re going back?”  
  
“... Yeah.” He doesn’t meet Zayn’s eyes.  
  
Zayn shakes his head, not believing it - not  _wanting_  to. “But you’re leaving me here.”  
  
Liam crumples, reaching for him. “Zayn, please--”  
  
“I get it,” he says bitterly, stepping back. “I’ve felt out of place this entire time, I should have expected this.”  
  
“No, please, you’ve got it wrong,” Liam whimpers. “Don’t leave. Y-you can come with us, we’ll make it work--”  
  
“Liam, he can’t.” Louis’ voice makes them both turn. He stares at the ground, his mouth twisting like the words taste sour. “It takes too much energy. Without magic, you won’t be able to get through.” Behind him, Niall swallows thickly, and Harry presses his palms over his eyes. Louis looks up at Zayn guiltily. “I’m sorry.”  
  
Zayn nods stiffly, and Liam latches onto his hand. “This is my fault. I didn’t want to tell you, I kept putting it off.”  
  
It feels like cold fingers around his lungs. All the lingering gazes, the burning touches- and Liam had known all along. Zayn starts to tug his hand away, but Liam won’t let go.  
  
“Listen to me,” he begs. “I knew it would lead to this, to leaving, but I thought - I thought if I didn’t say anything, if I didn’t think about it... maybe then saying goodbye wouldn’t be so hard.” He sniffs, manages to give a wobbly smile. “I was wrong, obviously, but. I just- don’t want to.”  
  
“Then don’t,” Zayn blurts before he can stop himself, and uses his free hand to pull Liam a step closer. “You’re much better at  _hellos_ , or even  _good mornings_ , really.”  
  
Liam smiles for real this time - a bit sadly, but his teary eyes crinkle at the corners, and Zayn thinks once more of kissing him. A proper send-off, he supposes. But then Liam is shaking his head, with the corners of his mouth still turned up.  
  
“What am I going to do without you?” he sighs, and that hurts more than the ice grip on Zayn’s lungs and the sting in his chest.  
  
A sharp screech rips through the air and Liam ducks instinctively, pulling Zayn down with him just as a massive black crow  _thing_  swoops down over them. Its talons miss them by only a few inches.  
  
“What the _fuck_ ,” Zayn says, because they definitely just almost died, but the monster-bird turns and comes back around, and just as it dives on them Liam shoves Zayn away. It passes in between them with another angry scream. Just as it turns to fly at them again, Niall appears in its path. He makes a quick sweeping motion with his hands and a sudden gale of wind knocks the bird out of the sky.  
  
Louis and Harry come up beside him in fighting stances. “She’s found us,” Louis grunts as the trees around them rustle. “Zayn, take Liam and get out of here.”  
  
“There’s nowhere to go,” Liam says, standing his ground. New creatures step into the clearing - goblins, Zayn guesses, green and grey with sharp teeth and sharper swords. “We’re surrounded.”  
  
The monsters advance before Louis can reply, and Zayn is lost for a moment in the flurry of spells that the three magicians throw at them. He’s brought back to focus when he hears Liam cry out, immediately turning around to see him stumble away from one of the grinning creatures. There’s a bleeding gash across his shoulder and Zayn rushes to his side as Harry sets the goblin responsible on fire.  
  
“God, Li--” There’s so much red, Zayn isn’t sure where to touch. His hands shake as they hover over the wound.  
  
“It’s okay,” Liam gasps out, clearly in pain. “I’ll be fine in a minute, just wait.” Zayn nods, but still holds his breath until a faint glow lights up under Liam’s skin, and the gash closes itself. They both sigh in relief, but the pause is short-lived.  
  
A bigger goblin roars and sends Niall flying back into Zayn, which knocks them both over. It grabs Liam by the wrist and begins to drags him away across the clearing, deflecting bursts of colourful spells with its sword. Zayn’s stomach drops. As he struggles to his feet Louis growls, and Zayn sees his eyes glint before there’s a blinding flash of light and half the goblins surrounding them fall to the ground.  
  
Just when he and the others start after Liam, a chill sweeps over them and the remaining goblins step back, lowering their weapons. Louis grabs Zayn’s arm as a tall figure materializes beside Liam, who thrashes about in a futile attempt to free himself from the goblin’s grip.  
  
“That’s her,” Louis says lowly, baring his teeth as the figure shapes itself into a tall, thin woman.  
  
The Witch has high cheekbones and long lashes, jet black hair and bright red lips. Her dress looks a bit too much like bat wings wrapped around her torso and her eyes are entirely filled in black, but she’s all sharp angles and smooth, flawless skin. She’s beautiful - Zayn realises this and feels a bit sick for thinking it.  
  
Niall nudges his shoulder. “Anti-aging spells,” he whispers. “Not her true form. She’s probably older than some of these trees, if we’re being honest.”  
  
Louis steps out in front of the others, facing the Witch. “Been a while,” he calls, cracking his knuckles. “For a bit there, I thought you’d given up and turned tail.”  
  
“You wish, _boy_ ,” she laughs. It buzzes unpleasantly in Zayn’s ears. “I’ve been so patient, waiting for you. I knew you would come back here eventually, and bring my prize straight to me.” Her lips quirk into a smile, showing off sharp canines. “And you brought your other boytoys along for the ride, it seems.”  
  
“Leave them out of it,” Louis snarls, and a spell begins to spark in his palms.  
  
The Witch cackles delightedly. “Calm down, sweetheart, no need to get so  _bothered_.”  
  
“Tell me,” Louis barks, pointedly ignoring her. “Why you didn’t just come after us on the road? It would’ve saved you time, instead of waiting here for days.”  
  
“Oh, I would’ve been willing to wait  _much_  longer for this gem,” she says, stepping up to Liam and gently running her hand through his hair. He squirms away from her, and Zayn clenches his fists. The Witch pouts and crosses her arms, turning back to Louis. “But believe me, darling, I would have cut you off days ago if I could only  _find_  you. Clever trick, hiding behind that Shield you’ve got.”  
  
The boys pause, exchanging confused glances. Harry leans in and taps Louis on the shoulder. “Does she mean you?”  
  
“Can’t be,” Louis mutters back, shaking his head. “My spell wasn’t working well enough for us to be completely off her radar.”  
  
The Witch blinks. “You can’t be serious,” she says slowly, her black eyes narrowing. “Not one of you has any idea? You literally don’t...” She trails off, staring at them blankly, before bursting into laughter and clapping her hands. “Oh, this is just _too_  good. ”  
  
She faces Liam again, leaning down to be level with him. “Let’s make this a game, shall we? One of your escorts has a special protective magic that’s been keeping you hidden from me.” Tilting Liam’s face up, she presses her long nails against his cheek. “Three guesses, and the first two don’t count. Ready?” She flicks her wrist and Liam cries out, yanking himself away.  
  
“Don’t touch him!” Zayn shouts, and Louis swears under his breath. The three long cuts the Witch left along Liam’s cheekbone heal over quickly, and she turns to grin delightedly at Zayn.  
  
“Of all the spells that have given me trouble,” she sighs, “the one I hate most has been cast by a  _human_.”  
  
“Um,” Zayn says. His gaze flickers back to Liam, who’s staring at him with wide eyes. “I’m. I don’t. What?”  
  
“Let me lay this out for you,” the Witch continues, ignoring him and addressing Liam again. “You and your tagalongs split up when you got to this side of the gate, but while they stayed quiet and hidden, you disappeared completely. Not so much as a glimpse of you for _ages_... until your Shield left town for a few days.” She winks at Zayn over her shoulder, and he shudders. “Then it was easy - you’re not exactly the most subtle aura I’ve ever encountered, darling.” She laughs, like she’s looking back on a fond memory. “I do hope you enjoyed the fruit basket I left.  
  
“I lost track of you nearly right after that - but, really, where else would you go?” she muses, gesturing to the gate. “You’re all trapped now. I’ll let you stay and watch your friends get torn up, and then we’ll be on our way back home.”  
  
“No!” Liam cries, struggling to get away from her, but with a wave of her hand, the goblins surround the other four boys again. Louis and Niall immediately spring into action, firing off spells left and right. Harry hooks his arm around Zayn’s, pulling him out of the way of the swords and axes flying about.  
  
“Louis,” Zayn calls as he’s swung around to dodge a sharp blade aimed for his head, “I’m not quite understanding what just happened.”  
  
Grunting, Louis conjures a fireball in his palm and sends it spinning into a goblin’s chest.  
  
“... Louis?”  
  
“He’s just pissed ‘cause he didn’t see it before,” Niall shouts to him, knocking over three of the creatures with a thick tree branch. “Congrats, Zayn, you’ve got magic.”  
  
“Not just  _any_  magic,” Louis jumps in begrudgingly. “It’s in an entirely different vein from ours. It’s a Shield, as she said, and it’s been protecting Liam this entire time, even though - fuck  _off_ already! - Even though you had no idea.” He pauses to duck under a goblin’s arm and blasts it from behind with a bright ray of energy. “It comes from your connection with Liam - and you get  _no_  guesses as to what that means.”  
  
Zayn blushes, but Harry tugs him down before he can deny anything, and Niall just laughs.  
  
“The Witch found him while you were away visiting your family, way before this shitstorm started,” Louis goes on. “I guess you have a proximity limit, then. Liam has to be in the same general area as you to be protected.”  
  
Harry lets go of Zayn for a moment to cast a spell with both hands. “I think you two have to be on good terms mood-wise as well,” he says, glancing at Louis for his opinion. “With a spell that strong, not only would it stop working, but it could bring everything around it down.”  
  
“Right, yeah,” Niall agrees, appearing by Zayn’s side with a goblin’s sword in his hand. “Remember, you two were having it out, and all of Lou’s spells went to shit?”  
  
There’s a brief silence, apart from the roars of the creatures around them. Louis stops mid-stride and turns to face Zayn, a bewildered look on his face. “You bastard!” he cries. “I put everything I had into those spells, and all along it was you and your bloody  _Shield_  fucking it up!”  
  
“Sorry,” Zayn says weakly, just before Niall jumps in front of him to block a goblin’s axe.  
  
It’s all a bit overwhelming, really. For the entire journey, Zayn had been rooming with a magical prince and his three sorcerer bodyguards, and feeling so insignificantly human. He didn’t know about any spells, or monsters, or even anything about the terrible being chasing them - he was just...  _there_.  
  
But _there_  happens to be right where he should’ve been - with Liam. Protecting him. Doing what the others, all-powerful sorcerers or not, couldn’t do.  
  
He has to admit, it’s a pretty good feeling.  
  
He catches sight of Liam through the fray, and tugs on Niall’s arm. Following his gaze, the other boy grins and nods, and the two of them charge through the wall of enemies, bounding up to the goblin holding Liam captive. Niall jumps up and launches himself at its face, sword poised, and when it screeches and throws Liam down, Zayn is there to catch him around the waist.  
  
“You alright?” he asks, watching the bruises fade from Liam’s wrists but checking him over anyway. Liam doesn’t respond but grasps Zayn’s shoulders, locking eyes with him.  
  
“All this time,” he says breathlessly, “even in London, it was you.”  
  
Zayn smiles, shrugging. “Yeah, I suppose it was.”  
  
Liam shakes his head, though, tightening his grip. “No, I mean - well, that too, I guess, but - Zayn, I--”  
  
The Witch snaps her fingers, and Liam cuts off. Zayn watches his eyelids begin to droop, and wraps his arms firmly around Liam’s waist as his body goes slack against him. He can still feel Liam breathing - it’s like he’s just fallen asleep.  
  
“Liam? Hey, what’s wrong?” He feels panic rising in his throat as he tries to shake Liam awake, but to no result. Turning on the Witch, he growls. “What did you do to him?”  
  
She rolls her eyes. “Calm yourself, darling, he’s perfectly fine. I need him alive, remember? You, on the other hand...” With a wicked grin, she starts towards him, but Louis appears and skids to a stop in between them. Zayn lifts Liam up bridal-style - which ends up being more difficult than he expected, and Zayn makes a mental note to lift some weights if he makes it out of this alive - and holds him tight against his chest, ready to make a run for it.  
  
“What’s happened to him?” Louis asks, glancing at Liam.  
  
The Witch laughs. “He’s asleep for the time being, and will be until I decide to wake him.” She takes another step and Louis’ hand twitches, a spell already forming in his palm. “I’m just cutting down on time, really - it’ll be easier to take him through the gate if I don’t have to drag him there.” Her bright red lips curve into a smile. “The rest of you, though, have caused me enough of a headache.”  
  
She starts to shake, her body rippling and pulsing, and Zayn gets one glimpse of barbs rising like hackles out of her skin before Louis turns to face him, blocking his view of her.  
  
“You’re not going to like the way this turns out,” he says with a sigh, as the Witch starts chanting in a strange tongue. Zayn tries to glance around Louis, but all he sees is a massive cloud of black smoke forming. Louis looks over his shoulder and grimaces, then tries to usher Zayn away. “You’re really,  _really_  not going to--”  
  
A deafening roar cuts him off, and Zayn watches a jet black dragon rise and take to the sky.  
  
“You’re joking me,” he says, sounding quite calm, thank you very much, and Louis shrugs his shoulders, like  _what can you do?_  
  
It’s terrible and scaly and  _terrible,_  and every end of it seems to have spikes or claws. Leaves and branches whip around them as its wings beat to stay in the air. With another roar, it dives, and Louis is ready and waiting to fire an uprooted tree at it’s head.  
  
“I’ll handle this,” Louis sniffs as the dragon makes a swift turn and circles the clearing. He touches Liam’s shoulder gently, then lets his hand fall away. “Keep him safe.”  
  
He runs off to throw more debris at the dragon, and Niall comes up beside Zayn, keeping the goblins away as he crosses the clearing with Liam in his arms. He’s still asleep, seemingly undisturbed by the fighting going on around him. Zayn carefully lays him down in the untouched grass near the gate.  
  
“How are we going to wake him up?” he asks, as Niall leans down to poke Liam in the nose.  
  
The blonde boy bites his lip, looking around. “I don’t think the Witch is any nicer as a dragon than as a lady, so...”  
  
Harry runs up to them just then, out of breath but excited, even as a second wave of armed goblins appears behind him. Niall jumps up to take them on, but Harry just grins at Zayn.  
  
“A dragon,” he announces, like it’s the best thing in the world. “Zayn, there’s a  _dragon_.”  
  
“I’ve noticed,” Zayn says, glancing back to check on Louis. He seems to be holding his own - maybe a bit worse off now, since the dragon started breathing fire at him, but pretty well all the same. He raises his eyebrow at Harry. “What are you on about?”  
  
Harry’s face falls. “You don’t remember?” he asks forlornly. “A dragon in present day England, you said.”  
  
“... What.”  
  
“Sleeping Beauty, Zayn!” Harry cries, waving his arms about. “A dragon, a prince in a coma... True Love’s Kiss?” Zayn gives him an unimpressed look, and he sighs, deflating. “How else are you going to wake him up?”  
  
“Whoa,” Zayn says, holding up his hands defensively. “You think that if I- if I  _kiss Liam_ , it’ll count as True Love’s Kiss and he’ll wake up?” He laughs nervously. “You’re kidding me, right?”  
  
Harry pouts. “You said it was magic that people in love have,” he recites, before turning, picking up a discarded sword, and smashing a goblin in the face with the handle. He brushes his fringe out of his eyes and looks back at Zayn. “And it’s  _specifically_  used to wake people up.”  
  
“Y-yeah, but me and Liam aren’t-” Zayn splutters, feeling his face turn red. “We aren’t in _love!_ ”  
  
“You’re as close as we’re gonna get, mate,” Niall says, running past Zayn with several goblins close behind.  
  
“But we--”  
  
“Oh, for fucksake-- Just kiss him, you idiot!” Louis yells, twisting away from a burst of fire and sending a boulder flying at the dragon.  
  
“I thought it has to be his true love!” Zayn cries, but kneels down beside Liam. “I’m not - I mean, I--”  
  
Harry darts past him, clashing swords with a goblin. “If you don’t try, he’s as good as dead!” he shouts, and Niall appears beside him to kick the goblin in the teeth.  
  
Zayn swallows thickly and leans over Liam, filtering out all the clanging and shouting and roaring and focusing only on his slow, shallow breathing. Harry does have a point - if this doesn’t work, then Liam is probably not going to wake up, ever. Zayn’s stomach twists at the thought of that.  
  
Should he lick his lips, or keep them dry? Liam surely won’t mind either way, being asleep as he is. Zayn tries to imagine himself in Liam’s place, wonders if Liam would wake him up like this as well. That’s what lovers do, isn’t it, in stories with magic and dragons and True Love?  
  
Except this is Zayn’s life, actually, and he hopes with all his heart, as he leans in and presses his lips to Liam’s, that completely stupid one-sided love for his best mate will be enough to break the spell.  
  
He stays there for a few seconds, eyes screwed shut, waiting for-- he’s not really sure what. Maybe Liam will stay asleep for years and years, like Sleeping Beauty. Maybe he’ll wake up right now, throw Zayn off and stand up, slay the dragon and give Zayn a highfive for his efforts. Maybe he’ll never wake up at all, maybe True Love’s Kiss is just a thing for fairytales.  
  
Or, maybe, Liam will wake up and kiss him back.  
  
Zayn is about to give up and let go when he feels Liam’s eyelashes fluttering against his skin. He can’t help smiling against his mouth, and tries to pull away to look at him properly - but Liam’s hands cup his jaw, and their mouths have just barely disconnected before they’re pressed together again.  
  
Definitely not what Zayn was expecting, but he figures he can deal. Kissing Liam is a million times better than he imagined it to be. He tilts his head a little and Liam props himself up on his elbows, surging up and pressing his lips hard against Zayn’s. Smiling again, Zayn places one hand on Liam’s chest, feeling his heartbeat through his shirt--  
  
And it’s then that they both tune in to the applause that Niall is giving them, and break apart with sheepish smiles.  
  
“Sorry,” Liam says quickly, flushing pink. “That was a bit... forward. A lot forward, actually. I just - I--” He licks his lips. “Um. Yeah.”  
  
“S’okay,” Zayn replies, unable to shake the feeling of Liam’s mouth, warm on his own.  
  
They look away from each other, then. Zayn sees that Harry and Niall have apparently defeated all the goblins, but Louis is still keeping the dragon at bay.  
  
“So, that’s new,” Liam starts, and Zayn realises he’s staring at the dragon, too. “What happened to the Witch?”  
  
“Believe it or not,” Zayn sighs, as Harry and Niall run off to help Louis, “that  _is_  the Witch.”  
  
Liam squints at it. “I feel like I should be more surprised than I am.” Laughing, Zayn stands up and helps Liam to his feet as well.  
  
They freeze when the dragon looks up, passing over the goblins and scattered weapons before seeing Liam, very much awake. It gives an angry scream and spreads its wings wide, ready to swoop down on them, but Louis whistles, calling its attention back down to the ground in front of it.  
  
“Made you look,” Louis shouts with a grin, before throwing a goblin longsword like a javelin, spearing the dragon in the heart.  
  
The dragon screeches in pain and begins to fall, turning back into the Witch as it does so. By the time she hits the ground, she’s once again a dangerously beautiful woman - if not one with a bloody hole in her chest. Zayn and Liam rush over to the other boys just as she struggles to sit up. She gives them a venomous glare and with what is clearly her last bit of strength, mutters a spell and sends a tight black ball spinning at Liam.  
  
Zayn jumps in front of him before any of the others can react, and the ball hits the space about two feet in front of his chest with a dull thud, like something hitting a windowpane. It bounces back at the Witch, and she gives a strangled yell before the ball hits her - and then all the colour drains from her face, replaced with drooping eyes and sunken cheeks, a bit like someone placed skin over a skeleton. The Witch howls before falling hard on her side and crumbling to dust before their eyes.  
  
Zayn makes a face. “That was pretty Disney-villain, wasn’t it?”  
  
“If ‘disney’ means spectacular and well-deserved, then yes,” Louis says, “but what the  _hell_  did you just do there?”  
  
“Well--” He looks down at himself for a moment. “I’m not sure, actually. It just... happened.”  
  
Niall shrugs. “Good enough for me.”  
  
“It’s probably an extension of the whole Shield deal,” Louis says, tapping his chin. “If you could do that on command, you might have something really going for you.”  
  
Harry glances over at the pile of dust and frowns. “That spell of hers took away the magic keeping her young. If that’d hit you, Liam...”  
  
Liam sniffs, and when they all turn to look at him, they see he’s blinking back tears. Zayn immediately wraps an arm around him. “You alright, Li?”  
  
“Yeah, I’m just, um.” He takes a deep, shuddering breath and lets it out slowly. “Relieved, I guess. I mean, she’s...  _gone_. I -  _we_ \--” He smiles at the others. “--don’t have to worry anymore. We’re safe.”  
  
After a moment, Louis beams. “Aw,  _Liam!_ ” he crows, throwing his arms around him and, by extension, Zayn. Harry and Niall join in as well, and Zayn finds himself pressed against Liam at the centre of an only-slightly-uncomfortable group hug.  
  
“Alright, break,” Louis says, and they disentangle themselves from each other. “Let’s get these goblins out of here, I don’t want to tempt fate  _or_  karma by littering.”  
  
\--  
  
The gate doesn’t look much different when it’s open wide. The image on the other side is a bit distorted, maybe, like through a blurry camera lens. Zayn isn’t much interested, though.  
  
He feels sick as he watches Louis talking to the other three boys, making sure they know what they’re doing when they go through. It’s safe on the other side now, with the Witch gone, and it’s obvious how much they all want to go home. Still, he doesn’t want them to go. Least of all Liam.  
  
Brushing his fingertips over his lips, Zayn closes his eyes. He can feel the press of Liam’s kiss, like a ghostly imprint that he can call up at will. They were just getting started, him and Liam. Not only with kissing, but with the whole True Love thing - if that’s what it was. Zayn figures it must be, if Harry’s True Love’s Kiss theory worked.  
  
But they’re stopping before they even get off the ground, and they both know it - they _all_  know it, really. Louis looks down every time Liam glances over his shoulder at Zayn and smiles a little, Niall keeps trying to nudge them together as if a few more seconds of time together will add up, and Harry just looks heartbroken. He looks a lot like Zayn feels, actually, which makes Zayn feel terrible for feeling terrible and letting Harry pick up on it.  
  
“Alright, lads,” Louis says, clapping his hands together. “Let’s be off, then.”  
  
Niall immediately waves Zayn over and hugs him tightly. “You’re a good dude,” he tells him, like it’s philosophical, and claps him on the back.  
  
Harry comes up to him next, sniffling, and gives him a hug as well. “This isn’t right at all,” he mumbles as he pulls away. “You said there was a guaranteed Happy Ending.”  
  
Zayn smiles at him and reaches up to muss his hair. “This  _is_  the happy ending,” he tells him, but Harry shakes his head.  
  
“Not if you’re not happy,” he says, then moves away.  
  
Zayn turns to Liam next, but Louis intercepts the two of them and pulls them away from his apprentices. “Was just thinking,” he starts, hesitant. “Zayn, we said you couldn’t use the gate because you didn’t have magic, but... with your Shield, you know...”  
  
Liam’s face lights up. “You could come with us,” he cheers, nearly bouncing with excitement. “Please, Zayn, it’ll be great, I promise--”  
  
“Let the man make his own decisions,” Louis says, but he smiles fondly at him.  
  
Zayn isn’t sure what to say. Liam’s world would be everything he said it was and more, surely. Plus it meant no goodbye, and a proper start to the two of them being together. Even the thought of it made him feel warm.  
  
But.  
  
“I can’t,” Zayn says quietly, and Liam’s face falls. “I want to, really I do, but...” He glances over his shoulder at the break in the trees that they came through, at the path that they followed from the road and all the towns and cities they had passed, all the way back to London.  
  
“My entire life is here. My family... I can’t just - just disappear and never kiss Mum goodbye. They’d wonder what happened to me forever, and I can’t.” He looks down. “I can’t have that on my conscience.”  
  
After a pause, Louis nods slowly. “I understand, yeah.” He sniffs and straightens up. “Liam, a moment, if you please.”  
  
Liam steps back silently, and Louis slings his arm over Zayn’s shoulders.  
  
“You know,” he drawls, looking out at the trees, “for someone who was never supposed to come along in the first place, you’re alright.” He looks up at Zayn, nods again, and gently pushes him away. “I think I might even miss you, but don’t go repeating that. I know where you live.”  
  
With a salute, he walks back over to Harry and Niall, leaving Zayn with Liam, who scuffs his shoes in the grass and doesn’t look up.  
  
“Look, Li,” Zayn tries, “I’m sorry, I just - I wish we had--”  
  
“--More time?” Liam finishes, glancing at him. “Me too.” He pauses. “You’re still my best friend.”  
  
Oh. “Right,” Zayn says, a bit lamely. “You’re mine, too.”  
  
Liam nods and, after brief hesitation, steps forward, wrapping Zayn in a hug and pressing his face into his neck. Zayn breathes him in and bites his tongue to keep from saying anything stupid, like _‘see you later’_  or _‘I love you’_.  
  
“Bye,” Liam says against his shoulder.  
  
Zayn just holds him tighter.  
  
He lets go eventually, lets Liam slip away and join the other boys in front of the gate. He turns away when he hears Louis tell them the spell to get through, but he still feels the wind pick up and lash against his back.  
  
It hits him, suddenly, that he has no idea how to get back to Louis’ car - or London, for that matter. He supposes that, if all else fails, he could just pick a direction and start walking until he--  
  
“Harry,” he hears Louis say loudly, exasperated, “what the hell are you doing?”  
  
Zayn can’t help but turn around at that, and sees Harry in a line with the other boys, but crouched down and curled up, shaking his head.  
  
“We can’t,” he’s crying as Zayn gets closer. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!”  
  
Louis kneels in front of him, tipping his chin up. “Haz,” he says, soft, and Harry swipes the back of his hand across his eyes, hiccuping. “Hazza, it’ll be okay. You’ll see, everything’ll be just fine.” He glances at Zayn and frowns, just barely.  
  
“You’ll see,” he says again, almost to himself, and helps Harry up. Niall ruffles his curls with a comforting smile, and he manages a small one back. “Better?” Louis asks, squeezing his hand.  
  
Harry nods, but still looks just as sad to Zayn. “‘M cold,” he mumbles, and Louis puts his arm around him. Out of the corner of his eye, Zayn sees Liam shiver.  
  
“Right, then,” Louis announces, and extends one palm towards the gate. “This is it, no take backs. Ready, lads?” His eyes glow for a second, and then a bright light shines through the passage, cutting each of the boys out into a shadowy silhouette as the wind whips around them. They advance, the four of them, into the light, and Zayn watches them go.  
  
At the last possible moment, Liam stops in his tracks. He takes a long look into the other world, long enough for the other three boys to stop as well, staring at him, then in one swift movement, turns back. And locks eyes with Zayn.  
  
“Lou?”  
  
“Yes, Liam?” Louis sounds surprised, but pleased.  
  
“You boys can get on without me, can’t you?”  
  
“Of course  _we_  can,” he scoffs, then grins at Zayn. “Not so sure if he’s capable, though.”  
  
Liam nods and, completely ignoring the gate he’s walking away from, starts towards Zayn.  
  
Zayn’s jaw drops.  
  
“What are you _doing_?” he asks, frantic, as Liam approaches. “This is your chance to go home, back to everything you had to leave behind! You could learn more magic, you could help people! It isn’t half as great over here, I promise you. Don’t give up everything just to go back to a tiny flat in London with rude neighbours and too many birds--”  
  
“It’s also got you in it, though,” Liam says, like that cancels out everything else, and kisses him.  
  
Zayn feels like he could probably fly. One of Liam’s hands snakes up to his shoulder, thumb pressing against Zayn’s collarbone, and pulls him closer. He hopes it doesn’t seem too terribly desperate, the way he presses his fingertips into Liam’s waist and kisses back like he’s trying to win an argument. It probably does though, because Liam huffs a laugh against his mouth and pulls back, resting their foreheads together.  
  
“That too, I guess,” Zayn breathes, and Liam’s eyes crinkle as he grins.  
  
“Get a room,” Niall calls.  
  
They look up at the other three boys, still standing half in the light from the gate. Harry looks relieved, practically bouncing on the spot as he beams at them, and even Louis has a proud little smile on his face.  
  
“Alright, lovebirds,” he shouts to them. “Be safe, use protection, and do  _not_  total my car. We clear?” Zayn blushes, but gives him a thumbs-up. “Good. Now get out of here, I don’t do lovey-dovey crap like this.”  
  
They laugh and break apart, keeping just their fingers tangled together, and start towards the path into the trees. Liam stops just before the boundary, though, and looks back one last time.  
  
The three wizards wave to him, barely visible against the harsh light behind them.  
  
“I’m going to miss them,” Liam says sadly. “They’ve been with me the entire way, I can’t imagine where I’d be if they didn’t...” He trails off with a sigh. “I wish I knew how to thank them, is all. I just want them to know that I won’t forget about them."  
  
Zayn squeezes his hand, and they turn back to the path, walking slowly. “What if they’re saying the exact same things about you right now?”  
  
Liam shakes his head, bumping their shoulders together. “Maybe Harry and Niall, but not Louis.”  
  
“You think so?”  
  
“He’s not that sappy, ever.” He pauses, then adds, “Even when he’s around Harry.”  
  
“Fair enough,” Zayn laughs. “My point is, I don’t think you have to worry. They know you, same as you know them - even just little things, like how Louis _definitely_  isn’t thinking about how much he’s going to miss you.”  
  
Liam glares playfully, but stops walking to wrap his arms around Zayn again.  
  
“Thank you,” he murmurs after a moment, and Zayn isn’t sure what exactly he’s being thanked for, but he’s okay with staying flush against Liam for a while.  
  
When he lets go, he grabs Zayn’s hand again and smiles, tugging him along. “Come on,” he says, already looking around. “The road can’t be that far off. Let’s go.”  
  
\--  
  
Going back the way they came takes less time than they thought it would, and it’s not long before they come out of the trees in front of the van. It’s weird, seeing it again - it seems like so long ago that they were driving to the forest in the first place. They weren’t even away from it for that long, but Zayn feels almost nostalgic as he opens the driver-side door.  
  
“Jesus.” The keys are still in the ignition, the mirrors are crooked, and the seat is too far forward for Zayn to sit comfortably. He jumps back down to the ground with a sigh. “I think I liked it better when I didn’t have to drive it.”  
  
“I never learned how to drive,” Liam says wistfully, and Zayn laughs.  
  
“There’s a day project: Teach Liam to Drive in the Middle of London. Ought to be fun, if not life-threatening.”  
  
Liam pouts. “Well, the others didn’t properly learn either. They just magick the car and hope it works the way they want it to.”  
  
“If only it were that easy for everyone,” Zayn sighs, searching his pockets. “Shite, I don’t have my license on me.”  
  
“Louis doesn’t even have a license.”  
  
“I guess we’re winging this one, then,” he says dismally. “Here’s hoping I remember how to drive stick.”  
  
As if on cue, a sharp voice yells at them from the trees.  
  
“Alright, step away from the vehicle!”  
  
Startled, Zayn jumps and whirls around, looking for the speaker. Liam narrows his eyes. “That sounded suspiciously like--”  
  
Louis suddenly bounds out of the trees and shoos Zayn further away from the van. “Get out! You didn’t mess with anything, did you? No one moved the steering wheel, or tried to use the wipers? You better not have stolen my keychains, or I swear--” He ducks into the van and checks on all those things, then sighs with relief and jumps back out, standing by the door defensively.  
  
Liam grins widely and tackles him into a hug. “What are you doing here?” he asks, breathless. “I thought you went back home...”  
  
He shrugs. “I got halfway through and decided I didn’t actually trust you idiots with a motorized vehicle. I mean, who knows what horrors could have unfolded, had I not gotten here just in time?”  
  
Harry and Niall stumble out of the trees just then, rather more foliage-covered than Louis. “That’s not what you said before,” Niall says, brushing his knees off. “I thought we didn’t go because Harry cried about it.”  
  
“I did not,” Harry argues, shoving him. “Louis said it wouldn’t feel right to go home without them, ‘cause it has to be all five of us together. So we stayed.”  
  
Zayn and Liam both turn to stare at Louis, who closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yes, thank you, Harry, for repeating that. If you’ll excuse me, I need to take a moment to mourn for my image.” He actually does try to lock himself in the van, but Liam grabs him from behind and hugs him tightly. Harry and Niall, never ones to miss out on a group hug, join in as well, dragging Zayn with them.  
  
“Okay, okay, get off,” Louis mutters after a few seconds, batting their hands away. Zayn can see that he’s fighting a smile, though, even as he ushers them all into their usual places in the van - he and Harry in front, Liam pressed against Zayn’s side just behind them, and Niall in the very back, sprawled out and somehow comfortable.  
  
Zayn has to admit, it’s not exactly terrible to have them back. He leans his head on Liam’s shoulder and smiles to himself as they start the long drive back to London, leaving the gate behind.

\--

The morning is brighter than Zayn expects it to be, and it takes him a few disoriented moments to register where he is. He knows he’s not in his own bed, and the ceiling is unfamiliar, and it certainly doesn’t sound like London outside the window--  
  
They had been driving, he remembers, until long after dark, and Louis had woken everyone up when they stopped outside a hotel (he’d let Liam wake Zayn up, though - it was his shoulder that Zayn had been asleep on, after all).  
  
“What do you think, lads?” he had asked, half-carrying Harry up to the front doors. “One more shit hotel room before we join the real world?”  
  
There had been two rooms, though, because Louis had given Zayn and Liam their own. Which is why, Zayn realises and rolls over, Liam is in bed with him at the moment, sheets pushed down around his waist. They hadn’t done much the night before, too tired to do anything beyond strip down to their boxers and crawl into bed. Sleeping beside a scantily-clad Liam would, in any other circumstance, be an embarrassing problem, but Zayn drifted off too quickly to worry about it. He takes his time now, eyes roaming over Liam as he sleeps, wanting to reach out and touch.  
  
Except he can, now, and the thought of it still gives him happy butterflies.  
  
He brushes his fingers against Liam’s cheek, down his jaw, over his lips. Liam stirs slightly, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh. Zayn trails his hand down to his chest and rests it on his hip, pressing gently, and Liam mumbles into his pillow before slowly opening his eyes.  
  
“Morning,” Zayn says, propping himself up and watching Liam’s mouth curve into a sleepy smile. “How are you feeling?”  
  
“Warm,” Liam yawns, rolling onto his back and stretching his arms out above his head. “Tired.”  
  
Zayn hums, letting his hand brush over Liam’s flat stomach. “I was going to get you breakfast or something, but it was a lot easier to just stay in bed.”  
  
“I’ll bet it was,” Liam says, rolling his eyes. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with the touching, so Zayn slides his hand lower, across his abdomen. “Such a chore, waking up.”  
  
“It truly is,” Zayn agrees, and Liam grins up at him. He tries very hard to be subtle about staring at Liam’s mouth, but he’s never been good at that sort of thing, and Liam raises his eyebrows at him.  
  
Wanting to kiss someone is much better, Zayn decides as he leans down, when you’re actually allowed to do so.  
  
He slides his mouth lazily against Liam’s, and the other boy sighs into it, lifting one hand to curl around the back of Zayn’s neck. Zayn is pretty sure this is the best he’s ever felt - with the exception of the awkward angle he’s stuck at. He pulls back from Liam for a second to sit up properly and straddle him, one knee on either side of Liam’s waist, holding himself up with his hands by Liam’s head.  
  
When he leans down to press their lips back together, he feels Liam’s hands slide slowly over his legs and settle on his hips, holding him there. Suddenly Zayn can’t help grinning, and he pulls away to hide his face in Liam’s shoulder.  
  
“Um, Zayn?” Liam runs one hand up over his ribs and down again. “You alright?  
  
 _“Just fine,”_  Zayn tries to say.  
  
“I love you,” he says instead.  
  
He sits up properly, blinking. He hadn’t meant to say that - well, he  _meant_  it, but hadn’t expected himself to actually say it. Liam shifts underneath him and Zayn glances down, but all of a sudden they’re rolling over, and Liam is on top of him, grinning.  
  
Zayn pushes himself up, leaning back on his hands and taking a breath to ask Liam’s feelings on the situation - but then Liam kisses him hard, licking into his mouth, and he loses his words when Liam’s tongue swipes against his, warm and wet. He pulls away seconds later, nipping at Zayn’s lip before leaning back slightly. Zayn splutters, but Liam just smiles.  
  
“Love you too,” he breathes, and presses forward again.  
  
It’s a messier kiss than Zayn ever thought he’d be involved in, all biting and sucking and very, very wet lips - but the small noises Liam is making against his mouth are kind of really hot, and he can feel himself getting hard. On impulse, he rolls his hips up into Liam’s.  
  
Liam makes a sort of choked sound and pulls away, and Zayn can see how flushed he is, how red and bruised his mouth looks. His tight boxer-briefs don’t leave much to the imagination, either, and Zayn can see how hard he is through the fabric. He rolls up once more, just to watch Liam shiver, then tugs him back down.  
  
Liam’s breath hitches and he whimpers into Zayn’s mouth, gripping his shoulders as he ruts against him again and again, and Zayn feels a sharp heat beginning to pulse low in his gut.  
  
“Jesus, Liam,” he gasps, tangling his fingers in the other boy’s sweaty hair. “I-I’m gonna--”  
  
But Liam beats him to it, tensing up and coming with a ragged whine. Zayn grinds their hips together once more before he groans and comes hard, pressing his face against Liam’s neck.  
  
They untangle and lie back down on top of the sheets, catching their breath and kissing lazily. Neither is quite willing to get up, even with the uncomfortable wet spots on their boxers.  
  
“Well,” Zayn murmurs, brushing Liam’s hair off his forehead, “that was embarrassingly fast.”  
  
“Oh, sorry,” Liam says, rolling his eyes. “I’ll try to get you off slower next time.”  
  
Snorting a laugh, Zayn nudges their noses together. “I’m just saying, I haven’t come in my pants since I was, like, fourteen.”  
  
“So I’m quite good, is what you’re saying--”  
  
The door slams open and they both sit up, but no one comes bursting in. They glance at each other, confused, and then back to the empty doorway.  
  
“Are you guys awake?” Niall yells from the hall outside. “We’re gonna leave soon, Louis said.”  
  
Harry ducks his head around the doorway, hands over his eyes. “He also said we shouldn’t come in,” he says hesitantly. “Something like, ‘mucking about like teenagers’?” He peeks through his fingers and immediately jumps back, screaming, and slams the door. They can hear him yelling all the way down the hall, and Niall laughing as he takes off after him.  
  
Liam turns back to Zayn. “Mood killed?”  
  
“Not when it’s you,” Zayn says, and kisses him again.  
  
\--  _and the epilogue_  --  
  
“I’m back,” Zayn calls, arms full of grocery bags, and he kicks the door shut before slipping his shoes off. “I think I dropped the list, though, so I might’ve forgotten some things....” He walks into the kitchen, where Liam takes the bags from him and kisses him on the mouth.  
  
“It’s fine,” he says, smiling, and turns to start putting the groceries away. “I’ll go with you next time, my memory’s better than yours.”  
  
Zayn rolls his eyes playfully. “Right, like that time you forgot to turn the stove off?”  
  
“That was  _once_ ,” Liam cries defensively. “And we didn’t burn the building down, so it’s not even a big deal.”  
  
Shaking his head, Zayn leans on the countertop and watches him bustle around the kitchen. Mostly everything fell back into routine once they returned to the flat, even the strange amounts of birds crowding their windowsills. A few things were different, of course, but nothing that Zayn regrets changing.  
  
“Liam,” he calls, and Liam turns around, eyebrows raised. “C’mere.”  
  
He smiles and walks over to Zayn, crowding him against the counter before Zayn pulls him in by his shirt collar and kisses him slowly. Liam kisses back, his tongue flicking against the seam of Zayn’s lips.  
  
They break apart when they hear the front door open and close, and someone pads into their living room and makes the distinct noise that comes with flopping down on the couch.  
  
(Well,  _almost_ nothing.)  
  
“Um.” Liam pulls Zayn over to the doorway to the living room, where Louis is sprawled on their couch, flipping through a magazine. “You do know that you have your own flat, right? With your own couch?”  
  
“That happens to be just across the hall?” Zayn adds.  
  
Louis drops the magazine on the floor and sighs dramatically, throwing an arm over his eyes. “It gets so boring over there,” he whines. “By crossing one hallway and coming into contact with this piece of furniture, I have found meaning in my life once again.”  
  
Liam blinks. “Is that your way of saying that you want to spend more time with us?”  
  
“Don’t flatter yourselves,” Louis says, waving his hand. “I just like having more space.”  
  
The door creaks open again and Harry and Niall come through, the latter of which goes straight to the kitchen and comes back momentarily with a slice of pizza. Louis beckons Harry over with a fond smile, and even shifts his feet over so he can sit down.  
  
Zayn looks around at all of them, brow furrowed. “So are you guys just bored, or...?”  
  
“I’m not,” Niall says, his mouth full of pizza.  
  
“If you want something to do,” Liam says, glancing back into the kitchen, “I’m pretty sure Zayn forgot to pick up- um.” He pauses for a moment. “A cake, he forgot to get a cake.”  
  
Harry narrows his eyes. “What’s there to celebrate? Why do we need a cake?”  
  
Liam gives Zayn a nervous look. “Because... it’s... Tuesday?”  
  
Harry thinks about it for a second, then nods, deeming it an acceptable reason to need baked goods. “So, if you want,” Liam continues, “you guys can go find one at the bakery. The really massive bakery that’s, like, ten streets away from here.”  
  
Niall’s eyes light up. “Consider it done,” he says, heading for the door. Harry pulls a reluctant Louis up from the couch.  
  
“Please, Lou?” he begs, pulling bambi-eyes, and Louis heaves a sigh.  
  
“If I  _must_.” As they follow Niall out, though, Zayn sees him smile and hook his fingers around Harry’s.  
  
When the three boys have closed the door behind them and set off on their journey, Liam sighs with relief.  
  
“Are we really celebrating the fact that it’s Tuesday?” Zayn asks, following him back into the kitchen.  
  
Liam laughs, turning to face him. “No, I just wanted them out of here for a bit.”  
  
“Because...?”  
  
“So I could be alone with you, obviously.”  
  
Zayn grins, stepping close and nipping playfully at Liam’s lips. “How cunning.”  
  
“I know,” he says with a sweet smile, and presses a hand to Zayn’s chest, pushing him back until he’s caught against the counter again. “Now, where were we?”  
  
“Right about...” Zayn tugs him close again, more gently this time, and hovers with his mouth just barely touching Liam’s.  
  
“Here,” he finishes, and Liam laughs, tangles his fingers in Zayn’s hair, and pulls him in.

 

The End


End file.
